The novel opens with a prologue where it is explained that 22 people were killed in a shelling at a bread store. In response to this, a local cellist decides to play Albinoni’s Adagio in G Minor in memory of the dead for 22 days, one for each person killed.
Arrow is a sniper with the army dedicated to protecting Sarajevo from the men on the hills. She is assigned to protect the cellist from enemy snipers. On her first day on the job, she notices an enemy gunner there. She notices how he does not shoot the cellist and enjoys his music. She is reluctant to kill him but soon blasts his brains out. Later, her commander is killed in a shelling and she is assigned to someone else. He orders her to shoot an innocent man, but she refuses. She is kicked out of the army and later has her home raided by snipers and dies.
Kenan lives at home with his kids and wife. Every day he treks through Sarajevo to get water for his family and his neighbour. One day, the brewery where he gets water is shelled and damaged. On his way home he hears the cellist play and thinks about the future when the war will be over and he can buy ice cream for the kids. Later, he goes and gets water again for everyone.
Dragan is and old man whose wife and son have fled to Italy. Throughout the novel he has to make the difficult choice of whether or not to risk his life in order to cross the intersection. He finds an old friend named Amina, who is taking pills to her mother. She is shot by the men on the hills and Dragan does not go to to save her. He spends the rest of the novel trying to come to terms with this. Due to him hearing the cellist’s playing, he feels more positive about society.
