Under the guise of a photojournalist sympathetic towards Salafi jihadism, Talal Derki is allowed to enter a village controlled by the al-Nusra Front close to the front line of the Syrian Civil War, and stays with the Osama family. The family patriarch Abu Osama is a enthusiastic fanatic, openly praising the September 11 attacks and naming his children after the leaders of al-Qaeda and the Taliban. He works as a sniper and as a mine remover, and removes his children from school due to coeducation.