Bashir is from Pakistan. He is an immigrant worker in a small Norwegian city, but since he doesn’t have a residency permit, he does menial work in a restaurant under a phony name. One day, he sees the restaurant’s owner set fire to the building in order to file a fraudulent insurance claim. His boss wants to get rid of Bashir so he can’t testify as a witness to the crime. Bashir flees and takes refuge with his girlfriend Anne, a Norwegian labourer. He doesn’t want to go to the police for fear that he’ll be threatened with deportation. But the situation is threatening enough anyway. Then Anne comes up with the questionable idea of blackmailing Bashir’s boss – but the restaurateur for his part is not having it. The film is a love and crime story with a realistic basis in everyday life in 1980s Norway.