Set in a southern Tunisian village in the early 1960s (though actually shot in Algeria), Ramparts of Clay focuses on the story of one village woman to depict a culture struggling with modernity. Like all the village women of her generation, Rima has been denied education. At the age of 22, she clandestinely learns to read. This first act of defiance leads to a feeling of profound alienation, both from her own people and from the encroaching Western culture. She is disturbed by the visit of two social workers to the village, by some nomads passing through, and by the disappearance of the only eligible man in the village. But the decisive event in her revolt is a strike by village workers against their entrepreneurial boss. Rima's personal drama is played out against a backdrop of parched desert and stucco houses, of wailing women and eerie nomads; but the camera stays primarily with her.