One morning, Ahmadou, a thirteen-year-old Cameroonian boy, arrives in Yaoundé, having taken the train from his home in the country's north. He meets up with other young people who, like him, are in search of a hypothetical happiness that most kids their age dream of. They are homeless, exposed to the weather, illness, pollution, and drugs, facing stresses of all kinds. They are forced to beg and work at odd jobs to survive, under the management of bosses who exploit them.

In response to all of these problems, a helping hand is offered to them by local public and privately-run social rehabilitation and drop-in centers. Ironically, it is neither the comfortable beds provided by these centers nor their generous hot meals, nor is it these young people's concerns for finding a job in the future that preoccupy them—it is the dangerous, transient world of street life and the heightened appetite for risk that haunts the minds of all of the Mbokos.