Selma has left her small Algerian port town in search of work further south—in the Sahara. There, she meets Noune, a young French woman who has come from Paris in pursuit of her child, who was abducted by her ex-husband—a man who has since returned to Algeria. In the Sahara, in a makeshift camp cast in the shadow of gas flares, Selma and Noune join a group of women from all corners of Algeria who have come seeking menial, survival-level jobs—primarily as domestic cleaners. One night, they fall victim to a brutal, swift, and violent raid.