Jahwad is thirty years old and going nowhere fast. He flunked out of school, and slipped into petty crime. Now, he has the police on his tail. So Jahwad is no longer going nowhere, he is getting out of town as fast as he can. He hitches a ride with a schoolteacher, who is desperate at being posted to one of the toughest high schools in the Paris suburbs. The man is so frantic, he rams his car into a tree. For Jahwad, the opportunity is too good to miss, but the high school dropout hardly looks the part.

Jahwad a trente ans, Bac moins huit et quatre redoublements à son actif. Il est recherché par la police et sa famille ne le supporte plus. Un jour, une occasion inespérée lui est offerte, celle de retourner au collège. Après tout, c'est bien le collège : il y a de l'ambiance, on y apprend des tas de mots, les filles sont jolies, les camarades sont sympathiques et les policiers absents. Tout irait pour le mieux s'il n'était ce léger détail : Jahwad a pris la place du prof...