Zena lost her parents as a very young girl, and though she was born in Albania, only knows about life in Paris. She was raised by her uncle Selman, whom she is about to leave behind in order to start a new life in New York. Just before she leave, however, she hears of an Albanian who is being detained by French authorities for want of the proper paperwork. Ordinarily, that would not capture her attention. However, Vladimir, who is the man in question, claims to have information that Zena's father is not dead, and could be located. Zena postpones her trip to speak with Vladimir and, once he is free to travel, they begin to try and explore his information. There is only one problem in their traveling around France together: he doesn't speak a word of French, and she doesn't speak a word of Albanian. Somehow, they manage to communicate, and they eventually become lovers.

Far from the Barbarians

Slightly over-the-hill actress Nina has a fainting spell in a Paris park and Sami, an Algerian man, out for a run comes to her aid. She seeks him out afterwards to return some property and discovers he works at night as a female prostitute. Nina is drawn to him and a friendship develops as he attempts to kick his drug habit and she tries to revive her acting career that sidelined when she moved to Russia for years.