The Beirut street boy Zaïn demands in court that his parents are not allowed to bring any more children into the world. Flashbacks show how this demand came about: How the eleven-year-old worked day in day out for his smaller siblings and his loveless parents, who coouldn't even take care of themselves. How he fought a hopeless battle against the bartering of his thirteen-year-old sister. How he finally fled, fought his way through the streets and with the sudden responsibility for an infant whose immigrant mother was even more without rights than he was, reached the limit of his strength.