A 19 year-old Swiss woman travels to her birthplace—an isolated, barren Berber settlement in the mountainous desert landscape of Algeria—to find her biological mother, whom she has never met. The perilous journey immerses her in a world virtually untouched by contemporary society, one that still clings to tribal mores and strict religious codes of conduct.
For months a strange phrase has been found scrawled on Paris sidewalks next to chalk circles containing odd objects. Policeman Adamsberg gets involved when a dead woman is found in one of the circles.
Priests and educational institutions try to put an end to a forbidden love between a 16-year-old student and his 40-year-old teacher.
