It is an ordinary afternoon for young Mabo Keïta, at home, in Burkina Faso (West Africa). While his parents are taking a nap, he reads a schoolbook on the front porch when a stranger - an elderly man carrying his own hammock - appears for an unexpected visit. It turns out that the old man is a griot, a West African musician/entertainer whose performances include tribal histories and genealogies. The position of a griot is a time-honored one and passed down from father to son for many generations.

A young biracial woman raised in France travels to Burkina Faso in search of the mother she hasn’t seen in many years. Meanwhile, in Paris, an émigré from Burkina Faso who makes her living as a cleaner teaches the Dioula language to a white middle-class office worker, in this affecting story of global displacement.

After a young boy dies of meningitis, Napoko Diarrha (Yaméogo) is accused of eating his soul because of a local sexist tradition. While this happens, her husband feels disgraced that Diarrha resists the idea of marrying off their daughter, so he exactes his revenge by spreading a dangerous rumor that would probably get her killed. Because of this, Diarrha's fate falls into the village elder's hands. When she finds out she will go trial, she decides to flee to the nearest town, Ouagadougou, before that can take place. After successfully leaving her village, Diarrha's age causes her health to decline, while her daughter grows up. Some time later, her daughter decides to travel to Ouagadougou, in search of her missing mother. Once they are reconnected, they attempt to escape from their male-dominated society.

La Nuit de la Vérité is situated in an imaginary West African country. After ten years of civil war between the government army of the Nayak, led by 'Le président', and the Bonande rebels led by Colonel Theo, there is some sign of peace negotiations. But not everyone is in favor of peace and one can feel the tension. The night of truth starts with a festive dinner, but the village idiot Tomoto always seems capable of ruining the attempts for peace with violence and provocation.