The story revolves around Hassan, who is studying Arabic calligraphy from a grand master. Coming across a manuscript fragment, Hassan searches for the missing pieces, believing that once he finds them, he will learn the secrets of love.

Patrick Perrault, a photo-journalist covering the war in Beirut in the late 1980s, is himself caught up in the hostilities when one day he is picked up and bundled into a car at gun-point. Blind-folded, he is taken to an unknown location where he discovers that he is being taken hostage by Lebanese guerrillas.