Moti, a ten-year-old Bengali boy, tells us about his country, his life and an encounter that marked his life, that of Paul Danvin, a French captain, who, with a heavy heart, has just let the scrap merchants of the sea attack the hull of his boat with a blowtorch. In Chittagong, Bangladesh, Paul finds himself without a crew, without papers and without a future. He takes the train to Dhaka, the capital, and meets Moti and her mother Alima. By instinct or by fascination, Paul follows them to the village of Rulipara, built on a strip of land protected from the Jamuna River by dykes. While the monsoon rages, and the Jamuna destroys the houses of Rulipara, condemning the population to a new exile, Alima and Paul engage in a desperate struggle to live their love without hindrance.