In the well-to-do suburbs of a small town, a group of pretty average, well-adjusted sixteen and seventeen year olds are ordinary adolescents who take a singular path.

She is almost deaf and he lip-reads. He is an ex-convict. She wants to help him. He thinks no one can help except himself.

Under threat by fundamentalist terrorists, a group of Trappist monks stationed with an impoverished Algerian community must decide whether to leave or stay.