Mahfoud, a young high school teacher in Algiers and an expert in computer science, has renovated an old loom he wants to show in an international exhibition for inventions in Germany, but he has to fight against the worst bureaucratic impediments. He is also under surveillance by his neighbours, among them an old kabyle, M'nouar, marked by terrible recollections of the Algerian war. The inventor is suspected to be a subversive and a plot is ready to be staged against him...