Hikmat Shafiq, a Sudanese Copt in his fifties, lives with his wife, Ester, in Atbara, considered the largest gathering of Sudanese Copts. The couple faces financial problems following the application of the Sharia law (Islamic law) in 1970, and the impact of such implementation reaches its climax in 1989 after the Islamists' coup d'état. Torn between Ester's desire to stay and her husband's desire to emigrate, the film depicts the brutal reality for Copts in one of the darkest eras in Sudan's history.