On the outskirts of a village in Egypt, Zeinat wakes up her oldest daughter, Ni"ma to send her to the market in town to sell their grain. The day before, Ni"ma's father took a plane to Libya to work for a year, leaving his wife and children behind. .
Ghobashi, Zeinat's husband, was planning on buying Ni"ma a wedding dress in Libya, since she was now old enough to get married. However he did not know that Ni"ma was four months pregnant. .
Ni"ma doesn't want to disappoint her father, so she suggests to her mom that she would "accidentally" slip when she was feeling the water jar from the river, and she would lose the baby. Zeinat tells her "Don't say such a wicked thing. Don't listen to the devil's promptings." Pray to Allah.
Zeinat tells Ni"ma not to go to the market, and just after this, Ni"ma's cousin Umm al-Khair knocks at the door. Zeinat tells her that Ni"ma is going to stay with some relatives, but this is just a cover up. .
Zeinat gives Ni"ma her life savings to go to Cairo where she can live and work until she has her baby. She instructs Ni"ma to get all her clothes and belongings and leave right away. Then Zeinat takes some of her old clothes and winds them around her waist underneath her djellaba, which is a long hooded piece of clothing, to make herself look pregnant.
Ni"ma asks her mom what will she tell her father. Zeinat tell her that she's going to the market like this, so that everybody there will see that she looks pregnant. "Isn't it better, when he returns, for your father to find himself with a legitimate son than an illegitimate grandson?" .
