A young government official, named Dondup, who is smitten with America (he even has a denim gho) dreams of escaping there while stuck in a beautiful but isolated village. He hopes to connect in the U.S. with a visa out of the country. He misses the one bus out of town to Thimphu, however, and is forced to hitchhike and walk along the Lateral Road to the west, accompanied by an apple seller, a Buddhist monk with his ornate, dragon-headed dramyin, a drunk, a widowed rice paper maker, and his beautiful daughter, Sonam.

A filmmaker is invited to an actor's house, who is keenly interested in his story. For the story to be told, the characters need to speak for themselves so they began speaking and they said

Three underachieving students befriend Mitra from another class. They devise a plan to help her but it leads to various problems.

After a rock is thrown through a window, two families become intertwined in a dispute after an incident following an unsuccessful marriage. The couple in question try to hash out what actually went wrong, as the surrounding family members point fingers at one another. Tension builds as all of their other problems seem to bubble to the surface at the same time.