Shot over the course of three years between Syria, Iraq, Kurdistan, and Lebanon, Notturno follows different people from areas near war zones in the Middle East who are trying to start over again with their everyday lives. A group of female soldiers is shown standing guard, clearing empty buildings and relaxing in their barracks. A man in a small boat hunts for water fowl at night with the sound of machine gun fire in the distance. At a psychiatric hospital, a group of patients are given scripts to memorize for a play about the current state of their homeland and are shown rehearsing their parts. A boy, Ali, is paid five dollars a day to help a duck hunter. A couple admire the beauty of the night sky; the man then puts on his thob, picks up his drum, and walks the streets of the town playing the instrument and singing a song in praise of the prophet. At a school, as a form of therapy, children draw graphic pictures of the war atrocities they witnessed and describe their experiences to their teacher. One of the most cruel scenes is the one which shows a veiled Kurdish mother in the jail cell where her son had been tortured and killed. Another scene concerns a mother listening to phone messages from her daughter who has been kidnapped by Isis terrorists who are demanding a ransom.