The film opens in 1994. Yachine (whose real name is Tarek), his violent older brother Hamid, and Yachine's friends Nabil (son of Tamou, a local prostitute and singer), Cannabis (drug)-smoking Fouad, and Khalil live in extreme poverty in Sidi Moumen, a shanty town on the edge of Casablanca in Morocco. Hamid earns money by acting as a Mule (smuggling). The boys steal liquor from Khalil's father's wedding, and Hamid rapes a drunk Nabil in front of the others.