A poor nurse falls in love with the son of one of her wealthy patients. Abandoned by her husband while pregnant, she must fight her husband's wealthy and powerful family in court.

In 1954, two young intellectuals, the ethnologist François and Ibrahim the lawyer, return to Tunisia after their studies in Paris. Brahim is engaged in the national independence movement. He is charged by the party to find his brother Beda, the resistants' leader, and to convince him to lay down his arms, a prerequisite for peaceful negotiations.

A community of people rejected by society live in an abandoned residence located in a "Medina": an old town in Tunisia. Al Bab, a local criminal running the residence's prostitution circle, returns from prison on his wedding day. Fraj, his brother and the town warlock, falls in love with Ramla, his brother's future wife: He is the only man of the residence who has seen her face, as she is kept prisoner in one of the rooms until the wedding night.