In 1983 a visit from a friend and her baby Tshakua, from their home in Rwanda, changes Therese Muanini's life in Paris irrevocably. Her friend dies suddenly from AIDS, and the boy Therese adopts as her own is diagnosed as HIV positive. Therese has to look after the boy and try to keep her job. Forced to leave her apartment, she finds herself alone and destitute, with nowhere to live, no money and a child whose condition fills some people with fear...