Messaoud, a young Arab boy, is placed in a foster family in rural France at the age of nine . The year is 1961 and Algeria is in the midst of revolution. Gisèle, his adoptive mother, by fear of the anti-Arab sentiment that has broken out in the region, decides to change the child’s identity. Messaoud is renamed Michel, "Michou". Gisèle also hides the truth from her own husband, Georges, a retired soldier. Little by little, things get complicated between Georges, Gisèle and Michou.