Amin works as a hired hand for a building company based in a Paris suburb. He lives in a hostel that he shares with other African immigrants including a Moroccan co-worker who unlike Amin cannot adjust to his circumstances. That s not to say Amin doesn t miss home and his wife and three children, to whom he sends money and whatever gifts he can afford. Then he encounters Gabrielle, a middle-aged French divorcée whose house Amin has been hired to renovate. As time passes, an intimacy develops between the two and they gradually open up about their lives.