Youssef, a 50-year-old film director, is scouting for a location for his next film in South Tunisia. He travels around the region, captures images on film, meets a beautiful shepherdess when stopping off in a mysterious village, before he vanishes into the night. His 4x4 breaks down in the desert, leaving him helpless in the middle of nowhere.

His car is his only familiar reference and his means of survival, as its trunk contains not only scripts, photos and various papers, but also water and cookies. Resigned to his fate, Youssef builds a shelter for himself and goes on dreaming about his film.

Meanwhile, his assistant and continuity girl are looking for him across the whole of Southern Tunisia, in scenes that are partly made up by the filmmaker's imagination. Youssef draws characters that appear in front of him. He nearly gets lost in his hallucination, until he suddenly realises he is actually playing the main part in his own film.