Algarve, late 90s. Following the death of her grandmother, Milene - a strong young woman full of life despite a slight mental handicap - divides her life between her family of notables and a Cape Verdean family that keeps her going, whom she met when her grandmother died. The wind that whistles in the cranes plunges us into the world of two families against the backdrop of Portugal's recent past.
Four friends in their 40s find out a deceased old flame of theirs had a child, conceived with one of them during an Erasmus (EU student exchange program) in Portugal 20 years earlier. They embark on a journey in search of the offspring, while waiting for the DNA results to find out which one is the father.