The elder, Bea, attempting to re-create her English life, wants to get an education and insists on going to school.

The younger, Lucy, dreams of trivial things, like mashed potatoes, but also yearns for a father.

The girls match their mother with Bilal, a Moroccan acrobat; the relationship turns sexual and he moves in, becoming almost a surrogate father.

However, Julia's friend encourages her to travel to Algiers and study with a Sufi master at a school that advocates the "annihilation of the ego."

As money vanishes, Julia's response is to claim that "God will provide," albeit in the person of Bilal.