On a rainy night, April a 23-year-old, with wet hair and a formal dress is perusing through the cup noodles section of a deserted convenience store in the middle of nowhere. 26-year-old – blank-faced Ahmed walks in wearing the store uniform, stacking sauces on the opposite stall. They both notice each other as the fluorescent lights flicker overhead.
At the till, looking through the window, Ahmed finds a young alcoholic boy being bullied by a bunch of rowdy kids. April walks in with her items and awkwardly makes small talk with Ahmed. Their conversation seems to be the only sound in the dead of night. When April asks for a cigarette packet Ahmed casually tags along and consequently, they both go out for a smoke under the neon signs.
It has stopped raining. The familiar misty scent of wet soil and concrete is still in the air. April standing a bit afar from Ahmed considers a glimpse of her past in the mechanics of reality before heading back to where Ahmed is standing. Ahmed and April talk about the struggles of making mundane life decisions, the North Star, and its power to guide lost souls. In the lull of the conversation, for the first time, Ahmed steps away from April, looking at her and the convenience store from a distance as if capturing a fleeting memory. Pretty soon, they start walking into the dark empty roads occasionally illuminated by the lonely streetlight.
As they walk side by side, the environment around them changes from empty fields to cityscapes to bridges over train lines, as if manifesting itself to the will of these young people as one or two scooters whoosh past them. The low approaching sound of crickets makes April stop abruptly. She wanders into the empty fields looking to find one. Ahmed proceeds to take another mental image of April as the atmospheric sound of crickets envelops them. She admits that she has never seen one before and believes that a great change would befall her when she does. Meanwhile, Ahmed sees an old woman on an apartment balcony looking towards the horizon in a daze. As their conversation about ghosts and death reaches its emotional crescendo, they find themselves in front of a Hotel: Hotel Polaris
Ahmed takes another mental picture before following April into the hotel. They walk through the narrow corridors of this musty hotel with green wallpaper and generic paintings of the ocean. The corridors seem to contradict the freedom of the empty fields and the vast atmosphere of the crickets. A rather all-knowing mysterious receptionist hands them a key to Room 101.
The Room has a stillness to it, yet the ceiling fan moves ever so slightly as if wrestling with time. The dust on the old wooden furniture has nowhere to go so it becomes part of the room. April and Ahmed lay on the opposite sides of the bed in silence. April has a serene expression on her face. She sits up and then goes to the bathroom while Ahmed stands up and starts inspecting every inch of the room. In a tall mirror, he looks at himself for a brief second before feeling too conscious of his body and quickly walking away. Then, he opens a cupboard, goes inside, and then comes out as if trying to scare someone.
April comes out of the bathroom in a bathrobe and sits next to Ahmed. They look into each other’s eyes and before long they create a form of communication that needs no words. They both admire each other’s bodies for a while before indulging in them. Ahmed grabs a condom which is conveniently placed in the bedside drawer and puts it on. But with the first thrust of Ahmed’s body, he feels himself being pulled inside April – penetrating her memories. He finds himself in a classroom where 8-year-old April is being bullied with hurtful insults scratched on her desk. Before he can comprehend the situation, Ahmed is pulled back into the present. April holds him closer by wrapping her legs around him jerking him into another memory. April’s parent’s bedroom door is ajar and standing outside is 11-year-old April. Through the gap both April and Ahmed see April’s naked mother being scolded by an angry man. They both notice April watching and that man signals April’s father who is standing right behind to close it on her face bringing Ahmed back again to the present.
The next memory is in her childhood home again but this time it’s 15-year-old April hiding under the table from her older alcoholic brother while protecting her younger brother at the same time. Ahmed, scared, pulls himself closer to April. He holds her head in his hands and focuses on his forehead. She seems confused but he immediately replies “Nothing” and with another thrust in he is transported to a funeral home where 19-year-old April is standing in front of her grandfather’s casket while her drunk brother climbs in through the windows after crashing his bike into a tree. In a moment of inertia, Ahmed keeps thrusting more and more and being transported to different rooftops over the period of April’s life and the arc of her contemplating death before arriving at a friend’s house where present-day April is wearing the same dress and walking towards her friend’s looking through the window where they seem to be having a party and enjoying themselves before stops in her tracks and turning around.
Ahmed is lying next to a sleeping April. She looks happy. Before going out of the room he looks at her one last time. Capturing one last memory from a distance. Outside the hotel entrance, Ahmed lights a cigarette and slowly starts walking – then he increases his pace till he’s almost running. He’s afraid, confused, and in pain. He runs into the convenience store and pants heavily. After calming down a bit and having some water he finds himself in the cup noodles aisle ruminating over what just happened. When he picks one up he notices that he’s trapped in an infinite aisle of cup noodles. Panicked – he tries to claw his way out through the noodles only to find a version of April sitting in the fetal position shivering in anger and pain. This is the moment Ahmed realizes that not only did he see April’s memories, but he also took them.
Sometime later, Ahmed, working at the convenience, notices April standing outside. He stands contemplating before stepping out the door. April confronts him about leaving her after they had sex. Ahmed doesn’t know what to say. Regardless, she is much happier now – as if she has never experienced happiness like this ever before. Ahmed tries to find a way to ask her how she would feel if someone took all her bad memories from her. She says she would feel bad for them for holding onto the burden of someone’s past. Ahmed and April sit in silence for a while before Ahmed goes back inside and brings out an insect cage with a couple of crickets in it. She smiles and thanks him. On the other side of the road, Ahmed is standing looking at himself on the pavement. He is seeing his capturing self for the first time. Road-side Ahmed smiles back to Pavement Ahmed. The end.