In German-occupied Paris, a young unemployed Algerian named Younes earns his living as a black marketeer. Arrested by the French police but given a chance to avoid jail, Younes agrees to spy on the Paris Mosque. The police suspect the Mosque authorities, including its rector Ben Ghabrit, of aiding Muslim resistance agents and helping North African Jews by giving them false certificates.

Exiled from his family for religious transgressions related to his feelings for his cousin, Lakhdar finds himself on the streets of Barcelona, hiding from both the police and the Muslim Group for the Propagation of Koranic Thoughts -- a group he worked in Tangier, Morocco, not long after being thrown out on the streets by his father. Lakhdar's transformations -- from a boy into a man, from a devout Muslim into a sinner -- take place against the backdrop...