The Brahimi family in Tunis has, as usual, a hectic start to the day. The women get the children ready for school and tidies the house; the eldest son, Jallel, aged twenty-seven, heads into the city centre to sell all manner of goods on the street. That day he meets Mahmoud, an acquaintance deported from Germany who urges him to buy a stowaway passage in the hold of a cargo ship. Jallel, a modern-day Candide, sets sail for France in search of an opportunity that will lead him to a better life.
With a false passport in his pocket, he finds himself, instead, sharing the life and solidarity of the marginalised and wretched in a wealthy European capital. When, after various adventures, he seems to have found a little peace, he is repatriated by the police.
