Mali (Dana Ivgy) is a quiet 21-year-old who lives in Jaffa with her father Reuven Wolf (Moni Moshonov), her mother Osnat (Ronit Elkabetz) and moody brother Meir (Ro'i Assaf). She plays the role of the good daughter both at home and at her job in her father's garage. Yet for many years, she has secretly been in love with Toufik (Mahmud Shalaby), a Palestinian Arab who has impressed Reuven with his skills as a mechanic and his strong work ethic. Also taking care of the cars at the garage is Hassan (Hussein Yassin Mahajne), Toufik's father. When the Arabs do what they are supposed to do, everything is fine with Reuven. For example, Meir doesn't like all the adulation given to Toufik and so when the young man takes some time off to get his papers in order to secretly marry Mali, who is pregnant, Toufik fires him. Reuven rehires Toufik immediately.
The Wolf's family life is very strange with dinner conversations sparked by verbal battles and power plays — precipitated most of the time by Meir, the black sheep in the household who angers both of his parents with his selfishness and disobedience. Osnat pictures herself as a beauty and demands allegiance from her husband and children. This not only means subservience to her whims, but also constant foot massages.
On the day of Mali's departure with Toufik, he gets into a fight with Meir at the garage, resulting in Meir's accidental death. The police take Toufik away and Mali sees her dreams of a new life vanish. When it comes time for her to have an abortion, Mali can't go through with it. But she still hasn't told her parents the truth about her love for Toufik.
Cowriter and director Keren Yedaya's film Or (My Treasure) won the Camera d'Or at Cannes in 2004 for the Best First Feature. There she was dealing with the difficulty involved in turning around another person's life. Here the theme is the wall of prejudice and misunderstanding which separates many Jews from the Arabs who work for them and live in the same city.
Meir's rage against his father for claiming that Toufik is a better and more reliable worker than he intensifies his hatred of Toufik. But the most telling prejudicial event in Jaffa is the way in which the Wolf family idealizes Meir after his death, memorializing him as a saintly son who is then celebrated each year with a special service.
Over the next nine years, Mali finds a measure of love in raising her daughter Shiran (Lily Ivgy). When Toufik is released from prison, she has some very hard decisions to make about her secret relationship with the father of their child.
