Denizli, an Aegean town, in the early 1930s. The local mayor has plans to marry off his 18 year-old son, Ali, who has just finished high school, to Neşe, the daughter of the neighbours across the street. His prerogative, however, is as much about marrying the commercial interests of the two families. The trouble is, Ali is not the kind of person equipped to take on the responsibility of marriage. While Ali is content to turn out hand-woven fabrics on his father’s looms, his forward-thinking father entertains ideas of moving into the production-line business and bringing in Ali as head. But Ali is more interested in substituting for a fugitive actor at a travelling theatre company that visits the town, in making puppets and whiling away the time with childish pranks. Despite encouragement from his family, Ali has had no sexual experience to date and remains resolutely a virgin. At his mother’s insistence, the family ends up deciding to hire Ali a ‘borrowed bride’.

Borrowed brides are professional ladies in the business of priming boys aged 16-17 for marriage, and in particular furthering their sex education. With the help of a go-between, Emine, the most accomplished borrowed bride in town, is duly hired. Emine, who is struggling to secure her younger sister an education, has a lover behind bars whom she is planning to marry.

She takes on the job only because of her precarious financial situation. And so Ali and Emine, 15 years his senior, find themselves brought together completely against their wishes.

To begin with, the two are aloof, having no other thoughts than to escape from the other as quickly as possible. But before long, Emine is unwittingly charmed by Ali, who has qualities she’s found in no other man. And Ali, for his part, cannot resist the loveliness of the mature Emine or her subtle sexuality. Their initial hostility turns quickly into a passionate affair.

The borrowed bride business has strict rules attached, and Emine is only too aware of what happens to anyone who falls foul of them. She tries her best to persuade Ali to abandon his passion. But the day Emine is to leave the household, Ali stirs up a storm when he announces to his mother that he is in love with Emine and wants to marry her. His mother responds by accusing Emine of casting spells and throwing her out of the house. His father, fearing for his mayoral reputation, goes even further and threatens Emine with her life. To add to the confusion, Emine’s jailbird lover is released from prison at exactly the same time.

For a while the two lovers are gripped by nothing but despair. But in the end, they resolve to take a chance and elope with the help of the travelling theatre as it leaves town.