In the 70s, a communist-leaning movement was outlawed, and its activists were detained. In order to be freed, the authorities asked the detainees to apologize to the president. They declined, but one changes his mind.
In Tunisia, Commissioner Ali and Khaled investigate the ritualistic murder of a young woman. Her limbs have been severed, her head is missing, and in its place, the killer has grotesquely sewn the head of a dog.
Youssef, a nobody with tons of debts and nothing in his life, is offered a job by his uncle to oversee the construction of an elementary school in the far away rural town of Ragouj. He learns the good and bad of his new home and its people.