A few miles from Paris, on the other side of the northern ring road, stands a ghetto neighborhood with countless rows of dilapidated apartment buildings, their concrete crumbling and iron rusting. A multiracial community has long been rooted here, while most native French families have deserted the area. In tower 216 lives a "model" family of Algerian origin, the Bouamazzas. Our heroine, Aïcha, 25, the eldest daughter, is held up as an example by the whole community. But Aïcha can no longer bear...