A Professor returns to Ain Tadouirt to visit his old acquaintance, a cafekeeper, and to carry out a study on regional dialects of the region. When he finds the cafe, however, he finds out that his friend has passed away. He speaks with the caouadji of the cafe in Arabic, and they have a tense and awkward conversation while the Professor tries to be friendly.  He asks the caouadji to lead him through town and they pass through snarling dogs. Once they approach a quarry, the caouadji says he must turn back around, tells the Professor to follow the open path, and walks away.  The Professor climbs down the quarry and suddenly gets attacked by a dog. He hears voices and soon has a gun pushed against his spine. It belongs to a people called the Reguibat, who begin to beat him up. They cut his tongue out, put him in metal armor, and tie him up for amusement. The Reguibat tie him in a sack and he sleeps most of the day when not learning new tricks like an animal for the Reguibat’s entertainment. From abuse, the Professor struggles to survive and loses the ability to think. After a year, the Reguibat sell him to the Touareg people. While he is there, he refuses to dance and perform for his new owners. The new owner kills a Reguibat after considering the Professor as a scam product. Within this window of freedom, the Professor runs away past a French soldier out of the village. The soldier shoots at his head and misses, watching the Professor run away and disappear.