This film is based on a novel from 1947 by the Nobel Prize winner Naguib Mahfouz. The story takes place during WWII and focuses on Al-Madak Alley, a teeming back street in Cairo which is presented as the microcosm of the world. A barber is in love with a young poor girl, who lives with her mother, and gets a job in an English Army camp to earn enough money for their marriage. But he is not the only one who wants to marry this girl and when the barber returns, she is gone.