The little Syafii Maarif struggled to survive in order to get higher education in the culture where education is considered irrelevant. The setting is between 1930s to 1950s in West Sumatra during the period of Indonesia Independence. Later after overcoming all his obstacles, Syafii Maarif became one of the most influential figure in Indonesia and was able to get his Doctoral scholarship in University of Chicago. He was also the Chairman of Muhammadiyah, an Islamic organization with 35 millions followers but was well-known among other religions as the true leader for Peace and Pluralism. Constantly he fights against extremism and fundamentalism in Islam. Now he is considered as the
Nation Guru of Indonesia. All the obstacles during his childhood made him the person today.

At the age of 3, he lost his mother and had to live with his aunt and uncle because his father, the Datuk, the leader of the region could not cope with the lost of his wife. He finally married several women and practiced polygamy.

Syafii wanted to study and out-migrate but his father apparently prepared him to become his predecessor. When he managed to convince his father with the flying grades in the elementary school, the war for independence broke out.

When he was about to give up his dream to study as high as possible, his mother came to his father in dreams and his father was convinced that Syafii has to out migrate to pursue his dream, that he was destined to become somebody.