Young Turkish teacher Emre Aydin has been appointed to teach at a school in a remote and impoverished Kurdish village. His first teaching year starts off with a few unpleasant surprises. There's no running water in the village and the pupils don't show up for class. On the Way to School unobtrusively but attentively follows Aydin right through the academic year. Most of the documentary takes place in the classroom, where the teacher has to learn as much as his students. Many families speak only Kurdish at home, so learning Turkish isn't only hard for the kids, but tests the teacher’s patience to its limits too. For the most part, he's a friendly and patient instructor, but when students write Kurdish words in their notebooks, he loses his temper. With all his determination to accomplish his teaching tasks, at times Aydin feels like a foreigner in the village. Then he grabs his cell phone and calls home, where his mother lovingly lends him her ear.