At the edge of the vast Mauritanian desert lies the small coastal town of Nouadhibou, there seventeen-year-old Abdallah is visiting his mother before emigrating to Europe. This melancholic young man finds himself a stranger in his own country, unable to speak the local language he shies away from village customs and festivities. Yet, despite himself, Abdallah does become involved in the lives of the inhabitants of this unfamiliar world; the sorrowful but sensual young woman Nana, the aged handyman Maata and the wide-eyed and optimistic young orphan boy Khatra. Abderrahmane Sissako's poetic and beautifully photographed film is a delicately observed and poignant examination of the conflict between progress and tradition.