When Fuad loses his job in a dwindling market, he decides to leave Al-Madeeneh, the rundown but lively old town he has long preserved alongside his now deceased father. But at the passport office, a fleeting exchange with a woman, Wedad, who slips him her number, puts his departure on hold. It is love at first sight. Three days later, their budding love is shattered when Fuad’s phone is stolen. And so begins a quest to find his beloved.

As he searches – among locals dreaming of buried treasures, foreigners stealing lands, and the rusty workings of the town – Al-Madeeneh reveals itself. Not as a simple setting, but as a trap, a cycle that holds back those who are still fighting.