After a bitter family crisis, Ismael, the French-born son of North-African immigrants heads south from Paris with his 14 year-old brother, Mouloud, to Marseilles' Panier District, a warren of shadowed streets and secrets. Warmly welcomed by his stressed-out uncle, feisty aunt, and their large family, Ismael gets work on the docks, and despite troubling visions of the past, makes friends with one of the white men at work, and quickly settles in. Mouloud is taken under the wing of his teenaged cousin Rhida, whose dabblings as a drug dealer introduce him to a terrifying world of violence. Their aunt tries to offer guidance to the boys, but problems start crashing in from all sides. Refusing to join his parents who've returned abruptly to Tunisia, Mouloud hides out with a brutal crack dealer. While searching desperately for Mouloud, Ismael gets caught up in the racism that surrounds him, and complicates matters when he becomes involved with his best friend's beautiful Arab girlfriend.