At the Pompiers train station in Dakar, a taxi is about to leave for Saint Louis. It has six passengers on board: Souki, a young woman going to the funeral of a father she never knew; Malick, a young man with big plans for the future, wanting to say farewell to his girlfriend before he leaves for Italy; Madame Barry, owner of a hair salon, keen to see her children again after several years apart; and Josephine and Binette, two French women coming to the end of their holiday in Senegal. There would have been seven passengers in total, but Antoine, a French student of musicology, does not quite make it in time. The journey is long and the time these individuals spend together allows these people from different walks of life to share their lives with one another for awhile.