Barack "Barry" Obama (Hasan Al Farouq) moves with his mother Ann Dunham (Cara Lachelle) and stepfather Lolo Soetoro (Radhit Syam) from Menteng to another suburb in Jakarta, Indonesia. Barry befriends two neighborhood children, Slamet (Angga Putra) and Yuniardi, by playing ping pong. He makes more friends at his school. Although his Indonesian is fluent, the other children find Barry strange ("aneh") because of his long nose, curly hair, and black skin. Most can overcome this difference, but the local bully Carut (Yehuda Rumbindi) confronts Obama. The two, and their groups of friends, fight. Barry returns home with a bruised face.
Lolo teaches Barry to box with the help of the effeminate, cross-dressing manservant Turdi (Teuku Zacky). Ann, however, dislikes violence and begins to consider Indonesia a poor place to raise her son. When Barry is playing marbles with his friends, Carut comes with his gang and disrupts the game. In the resulting brawl, Barry punches Carut and pushes his face in the wet mud, humiliating the bully. As Lolo and Turdi praise Barry, Ann tells him that he should apologize to Carut. This advice, which Barry and Lolo reject, leads to a series of fights between Barry's parents.
Carut then challenges Barry and his friends to a game of soccer, with a cash prize for the winners. Lolo and Turdi begin training the boys so that they can win; Turdi also teaches the girls how to be cheerleaders. As the game approaches, Barry cuts his leg on a barbed wire fence and is rushed to the local clinic, where the nurses and doctors are unwilling to treat him unless he waits in the long line for his turn. Disgusted, she calls her father in Hawaii and tells him they will be sending Barry there, hoping to give him a better chance for success.
