Hamid is a happy, unwed, celibate journalist. Wishing desperately to avoid becoming like everyone else, he staunchly refuses to get married. His family thinks otherwise and speeds up plans to get him married. With his wedding to Rym in the near future, Hamid plots one last desperate stab at independence by planning his own subversive act. And he plans this act for his wedding night. Director Moktar Ladjimi made documentary films with a focus on the ethnographic and historical, and he carries that on with that philosophy here, as he pictures the clash between old, conservative Tunisia and the new, more progressive one. Hamid is caught between the two and weighed down by what Ladjimi refers to as the nation′s "social hypocrisy." The film also highlights the importance of the journalist, especially in a country like Tunisia, which is choked and muzzled by traditionalism and yet lurching forward into modernity, all the while maintaining the right of arranging their sons′ and daughters′ lives.