A young cart driver in Dakar is robbed by a succession of dishonest passengers. When his cart is confiscated by the police, he loses not only his means of livelihood but his sole claim to self-respect in an exploited and poverty-ridden community.

A witty yet forlorn portrait of a down-on-his-luck wagoner, Ousmane Sembène’s imaginative short starkly observes the economic disparity that haunts a newly independent Senegal. As the wagon circles around a sun-drenched Dakar, its movement embodies the inescapable cycle of life, death, and poverty.