The film was based on a folktale about brother and sister Shafika and Metwally. Where the wayward sister (Souad Hosni) escapes her petty existence in a small Upper Egyptian village and moves to the city. Chafika's poverty finally takes her to acquire a bad reputation as a belly dancer and kept woman. Badrakhan gave the story an unconventional socio-political edge by setting it at the middle of the 19th century, when depraved Egyptian Pashas stopped at nothing to increase their wealth and influence, even if it meant trading in their own people’s lives and sacrificing others’ integrity.