The country mouse, Alilo, arrives wide-eyed from Algiers to do a little business. The town mouse, his cousin Mok, French-born and Parisian to the core, is there to meet him. Alilo loses the address of the guy he is supposed to meet and they spend a frantic week trying to track down the suitcase which he absolutely has to take back to Algiers. During this enforced stay, Alilo's constant amazement reflects the stifling strictures of Algerian society, while Mok's endless survival tricks show up the extreme harshness of life in Paris. Alilo finds true love and misses his return flight, little knowing that Mok, his "pure French" cousin, has fallen foul of the law and been deported to Algeria.