Raped by her cousin at 17, Tunisian country girl Fatma flees her sexuality, even binding her breasts, She also flees her patriarchal, traditional family by going to Tunis to attend university. There, she unbinds her breasts and opens up to her own sexuality. She quits university to become an elementary school teacher in a small village. There, she meets and falls in love with a young doctor. At first, she rebels against the hypocrisy that requires a bride to be a virgin, but then pays a gynecologist to stitch her hymen so it will break again on her wedding night and make her groom believe she is a virgin.