Far from her native country of Nigeria and living as a single mother, Salima works the night shift at the meat department of a supermarket in small-town Australia. She pushes herself to sign up for an ESL class and, at the group's first meeting, meets Sayuri, who has come to Australia from Japan. When Sayuri's daughter dies in daycare and one of Salima's boys leaves to live with his father, the two women look to one another for encouragement and support. Improving upon their conversational skills in English with each lesson, each one finds her life gradually improving.