This film is based on a novel from 1947 by the Nobel Prize winner Naguib Mahfouz. The story takes place during WWII and focuses on Al-Madak Alley, a teeming back street in Cairo which is presented as the microcosm of the world. A barber is in love with a young poor girl, who lives with her mother, and gets a job in an English Army camp to earn enough money for their marriage. But he is not the only one who wants to marry this girl and when the barber returns, she is gone.

Adel is a director of a company and is married to Nabila, the daughter of Medhat, the owner of the company. Adel falls in love with the company employee's princess, reveals her feelings and that he was unfortunate in his life with his wife and that his marriage was an interest in relation to his position. A princess shared the same feelings and married her in secret, but Medhat finds out about them.

A girl leaves behind her past life as a dancer working in Mohammed Ali Street and enters college. Her ambition is to acquire knowledge and to leave behind her former life. She finds herself in a relationship with a young man from an affluent background and thus becomes conflicted between her two lives.