An intelligence service orders an espionage network in Egypt to launch an operation to capture the world’s most wanted Nazi war criminal.
For eleven-year-old Ismail, life in Rafah is like an empty shell. When a group of boys from his neighborhood accept him as their friend, life begins to have meaning. Being able to help them build a smuggling tunnel under the border consolidates the friendship. But fate has a plan of its own. The tunnel that he is digging collapses and he is trapped alone on the Egyptian side. A Bedouin couple promises to get him back home via al-Arish but destiny has a different plan. He lands up in Cairo where he wanders the streets earning pennies strumming on his rababah. One day, he meets a wealthy businessman who asks him to come and work for him. Ismail eventually moves into the businessman's villa and is groomed and prepared for what he later realizes is the real reason he was born.