After a parasite has contaminated all of Dakar's drinking water supply, a private pharmaceutical company develops pills to neutralize it. Meanwhile, a poor young man can no longer afford his pills. As the days pass without his treatment, he realizes that he had never been so lucid before.

Ramatoulaye, a 50-year-old teacher, has been married to lawyer Modou Fall for 25 years. The couple is very close and happy. When her husband takes a second wife – her daughter's best friend – a struggle between tradition and modernity begins.