TAREK NOUEIRI, now living in Paris, receives a package from his father whom he hasn't seen since he left Lebanon eighteen years ago. Enclosed, is a super 8 film roll which TAREK screens; the projected images takes us back to Beirut, April 14, 1975, the first day of the Lebanese civil war. ise.

TAREK and OMAR, both Moslems, and May, a Christian girl, live on the West Side of Beirut, the Moslem section. The Christians rule the East Side. This division becomes the symbol of a divided country and a divided people.
At first, the three are oblivious to the tragedies occurring in front of their eyes; three youngsters roaming the city, exploring their sexuality, befriending militias, and making home movies.

HALA is TAREK's mother. She, more than her family, experiences the burdens of the civil war that has made friends and neighbors as divided as the city itself, she begs her husband to flee the country but RIAD, TAREK's father, is realistic: the Middle East, in his view, has always been in conflict and always will; therefore, emigration is out of the question. The war starts taking its toll on OMAR; he is forced to become a devout Moslem, causing tensions with May.
May, doesn't buy into the religious conflict; she likes OMAR, he saved her and TAREK in many dangerous situations.

For TAREK, religious and ethnic divisions haven't affected his outlook on life, he is energetic and careless; all he cares about is finding a place to develop the film that contains by now some exciting footage. He embarks on a journey of unexpected twists and turns and ends up in the most dangerous part of town, the Olive Tree District, a section of town where no one dares to cross. And there, he finds himself hiding in a house that no one believed it existed, the one and only brothel in town. It is the only place in the country where Christian and Moslem warriors meet in peace. TAREK must take his friends to his newly discovered haven, but by this time, the cycles of violence increase in Beirut, and the brothel eventually falls victim to religious conflicts.

Life in the fall out shelters becomes like a second home. As foreign armies interfere, Beirut slowly collapses. Seeing his mother's condition deteriorating, TAREK realizes that he is just as vulnerable; many around him fall victim to the war, many take sides. But for him, they have their Lebanon, he has his.