A young architect who lives in Paris, returns to his hometown Fès in Morocco to find answers to his painful childhood. His old Sufi master Ba Jelloul and his friend Aziz try to help him reconstruct himself.

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.