Jose returns home to Cape Verde to find his community transformed. The beach where he had first played football is gone; it has been stripped of its sand and is now nothing more than rocks and pebbles. Those who had previously earned a living from fishing are now selling sand just to survive. Where once there had been enough fish to provide an income for fishing families, now each day is a struggle to find enough to eat. The reasons are all around the archipelago: EU vessels returning home with fish from Cape Verde. Overfishing by European boats has far-reaching and serious consequences, so why is no one questioning it? Sandgrains is a film about what happens when people start asking a simple question: why?