Plot

Nicolas, a 2-year-old boy, becomes lost from his father at the airport and ends up alone in the vast city of Bangkok. His father searches in vain and enlists the aid of a local detective, who uncovers an organized gang of child traffickers.

72 Hours in Bangkok film is based on the true story of a 2-year-old boy named Nico who becomes lost in Thailand. He flies with his father to Bangkok from Prague airport, enthralled by his first flight. He is happy, noticing the crowds of people surrounding him. The plane provides wonderful entertainment for him. As he can't speak yet, he conveys his emotions through external gestures and facial expressions.

On Day One of his arrival in Bangkok, his father takes his eyes off him for a moment in the airport terminal and Nico drifts away. He happily discovers new things and people around him. Soon his excitement disappears when he no longer sees his father and has no idea how to find him again. His father desperately searches the airport terminal for him, asking passengers and airport staff alike, before deciding to contact the police. The police tell him, however, that they can do nothing, because an investigation cannot start until the boy has been missing for at least 24 hours. Nico wanders around the terminal in desperation, confused and crying, because he has lost his father and is now all alone. In this tragic situation (a two-year-old child in a foreign country), he suddenly spots a woman with a guitar, who evokes a flashback to when his father tried playing the guitar at home. It stirs up hope inside him that she will lead him to his father. He follows her, thinking she will lead to his father and accidentally leaves the airport, to the Skyline Subway, where the woman disappears into the crowd, and he finds himself alone on the subway in the middle of a huge city of 10 million inhabitants. He wanders around the streets until nightfall, still amazed by things, completely different from what he knew back home. In the meantime his father asks people about him and learns that a small child has been seen alone going in the direction of the Skyline Subway. He rushes there in the hope of finding his son. Nico wanders the streets terrified by the train that goes across the street, and the many new sights and sounds, forgetting for a moment about his isolation. He meets people, who talk to him and offer him food, and these moments also evoke the possibility of getting back home to his father. Meanwhile his father continues to look for him, shows people his son's photograph, he distributes posters with Nico's photograph and a contact telephone number on them and displays them on the streets. Rain comes with the night, again showering loneliness and unhappiness on Nico. Contrite and scared, he wanders the streets in the rainy night until he falls asleep in a phone booth.

On the Second Day, Nico tries calling his father from a phone booth, when suddenly a local man named Koi notices him. He speaks to him, attempting to gain his trust. In the meantime, the required 24-hour period of waiting to report a missing person has passed. Nico's father gives a police detective a photo of his son and further information. The police start their search for him. Koi, who has managed to gain the boys trust, takes him to his home and tries to find out where his parents are. He finds a telephone contact to the boys parents in his bag, which he immediately calls but can't get through.

On the Third Day, Koi takes Nico with him to work. On the way he has a portrait made of the two of them by a street artist. Koi manages to call the father and arranges a place and time to meet at the restaurant where he works. During a moment of inattention, Nico disappears from Koi. He is again drawn to the bustle of the city, which doesn't seem to want to let him go. In the evening the lights of a bar catch his attention and a go-go dancer there reminds him of his mother. His father meets Koi that evening as arranged. Koi promises to help him look for his son, and uses the portrait he had made with Nico that morning. They go back to places where they hope Nico would be or where someone might have seen him. The gut feeling of the detective takes him to a gang of kidnappers and child traffickers. He gets into their hiding place and actually finds Nico there and manages to get him out. He is nevertheless appalled by the number of children imprisoned there and goes back with the intention of freeing the rest. A gang member, however, kills him in the process. Nico is again alone. He drifts unhappily among the streets at night until early morning rain falls softly.