Mehdi drives his illegal taxi through Roubaix, in northeastern France, picking up a passenger, Agatha, at the train station. The exotic and animated Agatha has come from Romania to meet her summer lover. When he rebuffs her, a smitten Mehdi finds her a place to stay through his extended family, a group of friends employed at low-end, dead-end jobs. Mehdi's circle of friends face an everyday struggle with demeaning work and cynical bosses. The adventurous Agatha nudges some of them toward dissatisfaction with their Roubaix-bound lives, especially Mehdi, who feels he is going round in a circle-not just in his taxi, but also in life. In the end, he begins quietly to move closer to the circle's center-as much of a change for him as breaking out of it.