Fatma is Nouredine’s widow, a fisherman who went missing at sea. She took over his job herself becoming a fisherman. At that time her in-laws forced her to leave her 5 year old daughter Karima with them.   
Fatma is 50 years old today. She lives on her own, and she has a very uncommon occupation for an Algerian woman as her life mainly revolves around the docks and activity in the port, squeezed between the hardness of her work at the sea and Nouredine’s memories and present day conflicts with Kaddour, the main intermediary with the fishermen.
Fatma only has contact with two or three neighbours, a few fishermen, former friends of her husband, and Maurice, the lighthouse keeper. Karima returns one day after 20 years of absence, covered with bruises. She has just fled from her husband after he beat her violently.
While her daughter shuts herself away in depression, Fatma has to learn to be a mother again, while fighting to keep her job which is jeopardised by financial speculation.