In Casablanca, Ali, Hmida, Mbarek and Messoud are four unemployed youths who spend their time dreaming of a better life in the Netherlands. One day, Hmida falls on a specialist of illegal immigration, Ouchen. The four friends manage to collect enough money only for the departure of one of them, Hmida. Several months later, it still has not given any sign of life. Ali, Mbarek and Messoud discovering that he is not in Holland but in Afghanistan, they decide to go looking for him on the road to Kabul.

In France, terrorist groups and intelligence agencies battle in a merciless war everyday, in the name of radically opposed ideologies. Yet, terrorist and secret agents lead almost the same lives. Condemned to secrecy, these masters of manipulation follow the same methods. Alex and Al Barad are two of them. The former is the head of the D.G.S.E.'s (Direction Générale de la Sécurité Extérieure, the French equivalent of the CIA or the MI6) counter-terrorism unit while the latter reigns over a terrorist network, and both fight using the most ruthless of weapons: human beings.

During the Algerian war, the road to Beni Boussaid on the Morocco-Algeria border is obstructed by the Morice line, a 430-mile long belt that is electrified and heavily mined. Moussa, a Moroccan friend of the revolution, helps refugees across the mountains. However, he must go through Beni Boussaid when he finds out that the path he usually takes is no longer safe. Hans, a Communist militant of the GDR, loses a leg on the way, while trying to remove a mine from a passageway. Normally, the wounded and sick are put to rest, but Hans is not a Muslim and cannot be a martyr.

A woman helps a prisoner free at Rome's airport and then falls in love with him.