In 1980s Beirut, Mason Skiles is a former U.S. diplomat who is called back into service to save a colleague from the group that is possibly responsible for his own family's death. Meanwhile, a CIA field agent who is working under cover at the American embassy is tasked with keeping Mason alive and ensuring that the mission is a success.

When Abdelsellem gets out of prison, his friend Nourredine is waiting for him. They spend the night celebrating their freedom and reencounter in the streets of Tangiers. During their wanderings, they meet up with Marcela, a Brazilian woman of extreme and suicidal tendencies, who draws them inexorably down into her madness. The three characters plunge into the narrow city streets meeting glue-sniffers, hash-smokers, illegal immigrants, and letting themselves be dragged down into what seems like hell.

In love with Brazil and Maria, a soap opera heroin harassed by a corrupt contractor, Abdelinho suffers parallel ordeal in Morocco by pressure of Amr Taleb, a dogmatic, moralistic priest, enforcing religious purity on the community

Malika, a punk rocker, agrees to smuggle drugs to save her family from eviction and fund her band's studio time, but her mission becomes complicated when she decides to help her fellow mule, Amal, escape.