On a flight from Algiers to Paris, an Algerian worker returning to his job meets a young Algerian woman born in France, who is visiting that country for the first time. They lose sight of each other and then meet again. Each of them lives in a different world and has to face problems specific to their circumstances. The film is a portrait of intersecting struggles in the context of the late 1970s in France, celebrating solidarity, friendship, the strength of the collective, resistance, and dialogue.

Max, an illusionist as unlucky as he is skilled, would like to marry his boss's daughter, but his boss won't hear of marriage and even threatens to fire him if he doesn't come up with an interesting act. A supplier of magic items comes to Marx's rescue, handing over his "magic clock". Marx locks himself in to experiment with it and, unable to get out, falls asleep... He has a dream in which, with the power to make false things true, he becomes the hero of extraordinary adventures that take him to an Eastern country where he is made Emperor. He calls Helen to marry him, but the deposed Emperor takes revenge by having the usurper locked up in a sarcophagus.