The work deals with the story of a man who remains silent all the time and is the main driver of events, as everyone seeks to discover his secrets, and at this desire meet eight different personalities who all agree on curiosity.

Ounayes, a masseur, works in the neighborhood's bain-maure. Without being able to count on the funeral washer, the neighbors are obliged to call on him to wash a "dead person". He reluctantly agrees but does the work in his own way.

A building guard in one of the neighborhoods of the capital Tunis recalls memories of his youth and the political events that led him to commit acts he regrets in his old age, and his fears of repeating them in light of the events that befell Tunisia after the revolution.

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 newspaper article published by mistake sparks multiple conflicts between a history professor, the newspaper's editor-in-chief, a businessman, and a student.