Six jeunes en difficulté de la banlieue parisienne débarquent au fin fond de la campagne française, escortés par leur éducateur. Ils doivent montrer leur bonne volonté en effectuant des travaux d'intérêts généraux décidés par la pétillante juge d'application des peines, qui veut ainsi leur donner une dernière chance. Entre le portable vissé à l'oreille de l'un, le pit-bull de l'autre ou encore les prières musulmanes du troisième, ces adolescents vont bouleverser la vie paisible du petit village.

Victim of a rape, Nadia Coupeau decides to keep the child despite her precarious personal situation. But her child is soon taken away from her and placed in public care. Desperate, but ready to do anything to get him back, she decides to join her friend Zoé in the capital... In this version freely inspired by Emile Zola's work, Nana's trajectory is a cross-section of contemporary society, from the jungle of the suburbs to the golden world of business.

A few miles from Paris, on the other side of the northern ring road, stands a ghetto neighborhood with countless rows of dilapidated apartment buildings, their concrete crumbling and iron rusting. A multiracial community has long been rooted here, while most native French families have deserted the area. In tower 216 lives a "model" family of Algerian origin, the Bouamazzas. Our heroine, Aïcha, 25, the eldest daughter, is held up as an example by the whole community. But Aïcha can no longer bear the weight of the community: she wants to spread her wings, gain her independence, and finally cross the Rubicon.

After a soldier back from Afghanistan leaves a message on her machine right before jumping off a building, Helene Villon, a respected journalist working for a big national paper, feels that this suicide is hiding another story.