Mhemmid is a socially impaired young man living in the old Medina of Tripoli in the late 1700s, struggling with his social difficulties and seclusion. By day, he works in the Saraya cellars. By sunset, he sets up his garagouz screen in a corner of the Medina, behind which he takes refuge from the world and indulges in his interest in dialogue – a social practice he is fascinated by but is unable to perform.

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While his disorder rendered his garagouz plays audienceless, people begin to realise that his plays are an imitation of conversations that he overhears in the Saraya cellar between prisoners, and thus brings them news about their loved ones in prison.

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Following his consistent routine, Mhemmid passes through a secluded passageway in the Saraya on a particular hour every day when he encounters a dialogue between two men reverberating through the abandoned passage. He mimics the dialogue in his garagouz play that evening, unaware that he was revealing a dark secret about the Basha’s son that violates the valued privacy of the conservative Medina, leaving the jealous society unsettled.

In the Old City of Tripoli in the 1800s, a brother and a sister lose their parents in the same war that loses the sister her sight.  Returning to Tripoli fifteen years later, they are warned from a burning perfume that announces the presence of castle ladies at their night stroll in the city. They must never be seen. Anyone caught in their presence is sentenced to death.

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While Emnani, the sister, struggles with her discomfort with silence which emphasises her visual seclusion and loneliness, Youssef, the brother, is indulged in an animated market bazaar.

As a coppersmith, he crosses path with a lady that buys his incense burners. Her face is concealed, but her voice was enough to capture his heart.

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Meanwhile, Emnani is having Turkish coffee in the courtyard when she playfully requests a bird to read her fortune from the cup. A mysterious voice visits her claiming to read her fortune, and warns her of a curse that death has cast upon her fifteen years ago to isolate her from the visual world. Taking advantage of Emnani’s fear of silence, The Voice seduces her to search for a musical instrument (kanoun) hidden in the city that would remove her from her loneliness.

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Emnani goes out to find it, but loses her unsighted way and is petrified by the night’s silence. After the sound of her searching brother unites them, The Voice confesses to the audience that the instrument is merely a mirage used to put Emnani in confrontation with darkness – behind which her fortune lurks.

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Finally, Emnani falls for the seduction once more and loses her way in the city again. Anxious, she undergoes an emotional struggle and disputes with herself over the visual nature of the world. Death intervenes as she finds herself in the presence of the castle ladies. Youssef finds her and becomes subject to the same punishment.

As brother and sister are being sentenced to death, the castle lady recognises Youssef and fights for his life. Emnani, however, is saved by her blindness.