In Alexandria, Fatma needs money for her youngest son's weekly kidney dialysis. She travels to Cairo to beg away from home, after she collects enough money she returns to discover her son's death. She decides to protect her two daughters from poverty so she returns to Cairo to continue to beg.
Based on Sonallah Ibrahim's celebrated novel, "Zaat" explores the social and political winds of change in Egypt starting from 1952, when the main character "Zaat" was born, all the way up to the present day.
A young man, who has little experience in life and looks at everything around him from one perspective, goes through a one-day journey that makes him question all his notions.