1961-1962. Algeria at the height of the war. Lakdar, a laborer in civil construction, has immigrated to Nanterre in France, leaving behind his family. Tired of being alone, he decides to bring wife and son, who live in the south of Algeria, over to where he is. For such, he will have to have a better place to live.

     A lack of money and the desire to give his family a decent life, eventually lead him to exploit his own countrymen. When he finally believes he has attained his objectives, he finds out about his wife's political involvement, of which he had no knowledge.

     This is the story about a man who tries to react against the society of inertia to change his own life, but who alone is capable of nothing.