In Belleville, Paris, Paris, Madame Rosa, an elderly History of the Jews in France and Sh'erit ha-Pletah who worked as a Prostitution, now runs a Boarding house for the children of prostitutes. One of them is Momo, an Algerian boy who is believed to be 11. Although Madame Rosa is Jewish and sometimes makes Anti-Arabism about Momo, she remains aloof of the Arab–Israeli conflict and raises Momo as a Muslims in respect of his heritage, taking him to her friend Mr. Hamil for instruction in Islam, French literature, and Arabic at the Grand Mosque of Paris. She is in fact concealing the fact that Momo is 14, having a strong skepticism of official papers and what they can or cannot prove, and as a result is unable to send him to a regular Primary school.