The young Algerian immigrant Younes tries to make a dime peddling black market goods during the Nazi occupation. When he is arrested and threatened with torture or worse, Younes accepts to spy on the elite community hidden with the pristine walls of the Mosque of Paris, whose rector is suspected of providing Jews with false identification papers. Yet once Younes is exposed to the calm, ritualistic world of the Mosque - which stands as a sort of oasis amid the murderous Vichy regime - he begins to have a change of heart. His burgeoning friendship with a cabaret singer eventually pushes Younes to join the fight against the Germans, instigating his personal evolution from illiterate factory worker to full-fledged freedom fighter.