Plot

After a boy loses his sister's pair of shoes, he goes on a series of adventures in order to find them. When he can't, he tries a new way to "win" a new pair.

Zahra's shoes are gone; her older brother Ali lost them. They are poor, there are no shoes for Zahra until they come up with an idea: they will share one pair of shoes, Ali's. School awaits. Will the plan succeed?—Eileen Berdon <eberdon@aol.com>

Ali is asked to repair the torn shoes of his sister, Zohra, while buying groceries. A garbageman takes them, and a guilt-ridden Ali apologetically offers to share his shoes with her. So Zohra ends up wearing his shoes to morning school, then must race back so that he can put them on to attend afternoon school. To placate her, he even gives her a pen that he received from his teacher after coming first in his class. With the birth of a third child, the family struggles to make ends meet. Their father, who is behind on his rent, does gardening chores, and wants Ali to learn this trade. With the economic situation getting worse, it is only a matter of time when even Ali's shoes will wear out - bringing out the question: what will the children wear to school then?—rAjOo (gunwanti@hotmail.com)

Ali takes his little sister Zahra's shoes to the shoemaker to be repaired, but loses them on the way home. The siblings decide to keep the predicament a secret from their parents, knowing that there is no money to buy a replacement pair and fearing that they will be punished. They devise a scheme to share Ali's sneakers: Zahra will wear them to school in the morning and hand them off to Ali at midday so he can attend afternoon classes. This uncomfortable arrangement leads to one adventure after another as they attempt to hide the plan from their parents and teachers, attend to their schoolwork and errands, and acquire a new pair of shoes for Zahra. Zahra sees the shoes on a schoolmate's feet, and follows her home, but the two soon become friends.

Ali enters a high-profile children's footrace in the hope of receiving the third prize of a new pair of sneakers. He accidentally places first and wins another prize instead. The film ends with Zahra finding out that she will not get a new pair of shoes, but there is a quick shot of their father's bicycle at the end of the movie that shows what appears to be the red shoes Zahra had been focusing on earlier and another pair of white sneakers, presumably for Ali, whose old sneakers were torn from so much use. The film ends with the final shot showing blisters on Ali's feet. Some versions include an epilogue revealing that Ali eventually achieves the larger-scale success of having a racing career.