Returning home from college, Sinan (Aydin Dogu Demirkol) must re-enter a difficult family situation with a father who is restless and intransigent, and whose gambling addiction has Sinan's mother and sister at their wits' end. He struggles to reorient himself within the family dynamic while trying to come to grips with the next phase of his life. He is planning to become a teacher like his father, but first wants to complete an experimental novel. Sinan's search for meaning and direction provides the basis for a number of extensive and penetrating conversations that form the emotional and intellectual framework of The Wild Pear Tree.