A boy in New York is taken in by a wealthy family after his mother is killed in a bombing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In a rush of panic, he steals 'The Goldfinch', a painting that eventually draws him into a world of crime.

Learning of her lover’s illness, Moufida, a young woman from a village in eastern Algeria, decides to go and see him in Algiers by crossing the country on a moped. She finds herself confronted with the author of her story. A discussion between the two begins generating some tension.