In contemporary Morocco, Hayat brings Soussen, her 12-year-old daughter, from their poor village to town, where they find work for Soussen as a “little maid” for a middle-class family. Before dispatching her daughter to her ruthless new employers’ home, Hayat takes Soussen to see Aïcha, a witch, and asks her to conduct a rite that will “lock” the girl's virtue. When Soussen finally has a day off, she goes to visit her mother – but Hayat has disappeared. Soussen finds herself alone in an unfamiliar world. Eventually, she returns to Aïcha, her only contact in the town – and discovers an underground world of desperate female power. Soussen determines that through magic she can win the love of her employers’ eldest son and so rise up from her lowly position.