Algier, 1957: The "National Liberation Front" (FLN) tries to resist against the colonial government in Algeria. Ali-la-Pointe rises from a small criminal to the leader of the guerillas of the Kashba in Algier. But the troops of Colonel Mathieu become harder. To find the leaders of the underground organization they treat people with penalty, which is as brutal as the assassinations of the algerian people. The film deals with the revolutionary activity of this group from January to September 1957, and its galvanizing effect on the people's growth to political awareness. The real protagonists are the people. The film is without heroes. Even those characters sketched in greater relief are intentionally refused autonomy. They remain the director's instruments for expressing political positions, to state that the struggle for national independence is a class struggle, a struggle between two opposing interests with their respective concerns: the preservation or the revolutionary destruction of existing power relations.