Driss, an Algerian emigrant who has settled down in France, is back to Algiers for his month's holiday. What joy it is to hug his relatives and friends, to get to know Nedjma, his cousin Amrane's promised wife and to rediscover the white beauty of his childhood town ! But, a dramatic news suddenly interferes. A fourteen-year-old girl has just been killed for refusing to wear the "hidjab". A spontaneous demonstration is organized, to which the women of the house decide to go. With one exception though : that of Nedjma banned from going by her future husband..