When a young man named Roman is sent to an infamous lawless prison in the middle of the Ivorian forest, he is chosen to participate in a storytelling ritual. Roman begins to narrate the mystical life of a legendary outlaw to make his story last until dawn and give himself any chance of survival.

Storytelling is a matter of life and death in this singular drama, which melds raw realism with folkloric lyricism. Grippingly unpredictable, the film proves the historical, psychological, and social power of such tales, as the facts of postcolonial Côte d’Ivoire are transfigured into myth.