Youssef is a hotshot anesthesiologist who often sleeps in his car for privacy. Laila is the careerist host of a late night radio call-in show. These two members of Cairo's elite, lost souls traveling parallel paths of longing and disconnection, are the principal fish in Yousry Nasrallah's The Aquarium, a meditation on the intellectual capital of the Middle East, now bent under the sway of repression in all its forms.
Mabrouk, the village idiot and his sister Fatheya inherit a land after the death of their mother. Bolbol moves to Cairo after suffering from her step mother's treatment and becomes a prostitute, when she returns to the village, she meets Mabrouk who was her childhood sweetheart and their love flourishes again.
Yousef is a naive employee who goes out on his day off to meet strange characters, including a wretch dressed like Charlie Chaplin and Said Marzouq, an eccentric multi-faceted billionaire, full of contradictions and ambiguity. While trying to find himself ,he becomes accused of murder.
Hassan and Tawhida work in the phone company. They listen in on calls and discover many secrets and crimes, which makes them blackmail the callers and report them to the police. After making a lot of money, they get married and Tawhida wants them to leave their old ways behind.
Attia (Yehia al-Fakharani) works as a simple employee, after his mother-in-law threatens to break his engagement from her daughter because of his delay in getting an apartment. He travels to his hometown to sell his inheritance. There he falls in love with Kharyia (Leila Alawi) daughter of Kamal Bey (Farid Shawki) who bought his land.