Nicoli is a young SouthAfrican mother with two children, Thabo and Magnolia. Since childhood she has lived in very difficult situations of violence, orphanages and years spent on the streets. Once grown up she continues to suffer because of a partner who, even though father of her children, abuses her violently.
Nicoli can’t raise the courage to leave this man: every time she tries she falls for his pleas and promises. One day, though, she finds the strength to react. She escapes, taking her children with her to Cape Town, and starts to live on the street again. Until, in the middle of the coldest season, a welfare officer directs her to Cesvi’s House of Smiles, where all three of them are welcomed and housed. Nicoli starts a new life, at last receiving health care, love and encouragement. Thanks to a training course she qualifies as nurse and today, fully aware of her dignity as a woman, she’s able to maintain her children.