Strangers did not, as a rule, find their way to Chez Dom, a small, dingy Tunisian cafÔe on Paris’ distant fringes. Run by the widow Houria and her young niece, Sabiha, the cafÔe offers a home away from home for the North African immigrant workers toiling at the great abattoirs of Vaugiraud. But when one day a lost Australian tourist, John Patterner, seeks shelter in the cafÔe from a sudden Parisian rainstorm, the quiet simplicities of their lives are changed forever.