It's 1967, and as the war of Algeria comes to an end, Adda leaves Algiers and illegally enters France. Five years later, she is in Paris, 17 rue Bleue, with her two children and two sisters. She has a long-term but ambiguous relationship with her boss, Merlin, who sees that the family are well provided for. His death means radical change for the family. Obsessed by the idea that a fortune is within her reach, and taking literally a popular East Algerian belief, that the beauty spot in her son's palm signifies great wealth to come, Adda sees her lover's disappearance as an opportunity to enjoy all or part of his fortune. So she embarks on a hopeless court case, gradually hitting rock bottom with an addiction to medicinal drugs. Numbed by psychotropic drugs, Adda drives everyone around her away. The years go by, the family breaks up. Her adolescent son Chad remains alone with his mother, trying to look after her health and the ghosts of her past.