A palm grove at the bottom of a sand cone. Five days a week, the simoun blows, turns into a storm and ravages everything in its path. The main activity of the inhabitants of the palm grove consists of repairing the damage and repeating the same age-old gestures to clear the sand, that is to say to survive. The only person who no longer participates in this activity is Abbas, the blind man. A sort of prophet, he periodically reminds the men of the fatality and the inanity of this struggle against the elements. And the handful of sand that he throws like a challenge in the sky announces each time a new storm. Among the inhabitants, two brothers, Amara, the eldest and M'Hamed. Amara's wife gives birth to an eighth daughter and this birth will trigger a drama. The man can no longer bear the curse that the arrival of this eighth girl symbolizes in his eyes and in the eyes of all. For him, eight little girls, beautiful and healthy, cannot make him forget the misfortune of not having a son. A son, even a crippled one, like that of his brother and sister-in-law, Roguia, is more valuable than all his eight daughters. This new disappointment leaves him bitter and full of jealousy. After having beaten and repudiated his wife, he will turn this jealousy against his sister-in-law, whose beauty exerts on him a hatred mixed with attraction. The arrival of the troubadour Hafnaoui, who travels from palm grove to palm grove to dispense hope and poems, will allow him to carry out a terrible and useless revenge.