An adaptation of the 1953 novel by Egyptian Marxist writer Abd al-Rahman al-Sharqawi, set in the 1930s, depicting life in a rural Egyptian village. The villagers struggle to maintain access to water, allowed to irrigate their fields only on certain days of the month, with many already arrested for over-irrigation. While external threats unite the villagers, the wealthy seek to enrich themselves, indifferent to the destruction of poor farmers' lives.