Leïla, Tarek, and Saïd grow up in a village in eastern Algeria in the early 1920s. Leïla, married against her will at a very young age, decides to separate from her husband and return to her parents' home with her son, despite widespread disapproval. Tarek is a shy and discreet shepherd. Saïd comes from a wealthier family and studies abroad. Both are secretly in love with Leïla. World War II sends the men to the front, and they lose touch with each other. Saïd becomes a man of letters. Tarek returns to the village, marries Leïla, and adopts the child. Three daughters follow. Soon he joins the struggle for independence, then participates in the filming of The Battle of Algiers, before leaving to work in a factory in the Paris region. Through a series of unexpected twists of fate, he finds himself the caretaker of a magnificent villa in Rome, time suspended in a tormented trajectory. Leïla, meanwhile, experiences the life of rural women of that era. Confined to raising children and doing household chores, she decides to learn to read and write. But the publication of Saïd's first novel turns the couple's life upside down. Tarek must return home as soon as possible. Through the intertwined destinies of three characters, Kaouther Adimi paints a broad picture of Algeria over almost a century, from colonization to the struggle for independence, until the summer of 1992, when the country plunged into civil war.

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