Algeria, the 1930s. Younes is nine years old when he is put in his uncle's care in Oran. Rebaptized Jonas, he grows up among the Rio Salado youths, with whom he becomes friends. Emilie is one of the gang; everyone is in love with her. A great love story develops between Jonas and Emilie, which is soon unsettled by the conflicts troubling the country.

Alex Randal (Stephen Moyer), a young reporter on the make, decides, without knowing anything about the situation, to go to Beirut on October 23, 1983, when he hears a radio report about suicide trucks exploding on both an American base and a French base, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of soldiers. Seduced by a gifted and enigmatic photographer, Julia Muller (Anne Parillaud), Randal finds a capitol torn by civil war, where political, financial and strategic interests intertwine.

After a few years spent in France and in the West Indies, Jamil comes home as a broken man. He arrives in a bookshop in the center of colonial Tunis for a temporary job as a clerk. He is attracted to Aicha, 15 years older woman and the mother of the book shop owner Tarak.