Selima, an Arabian woman moved to France from Algeria and takes a job caring for Esther, who lives with her physician son. Esther, a hot-tempered and cranky old woman, surprisingly likes Selima only because she came from the country where she once lived. When Esther fires her housekeeper, Yvette, after a huge argument, Selima delicately recruits her own mother, Halima, to clean and cook. Halima dreams of taking a pilgrimage with her husband with her own money. When Esther’s son leaves home on a business trip, Halima persuades her husband to invite Esther to her home. The two older women have more in common than they imagined; they go to a public bath together and read the Koran. However, Halima is bullied by neighbors who scold her for earning money for her pilgrimage from the Jew. Eventually, she learns that it is possible to become friends with anyone who does not hate Islam, nor disrespect different religions.The bond between the two women overcomes the conflict arising from differences of race and religion. The friendship between the lonely Jewish woman, Esther, from the West and Halima, the Arab woman still bound to a strict patriarchal order, beautifully shows how ignorance, prejudice, and hatred can be transformed into understanding, communication, and neighborly bonding. (KIM Sunah)