Seven women reside in a boarding house in Abdeen owned by Safia Omran (Salwa Khattab), a former dancer who gave up performing after marrying the man she loved to live with him in that spacious apartment, which she turned into a women-only pension after his death. Leil Galal (Ghada Abdel Razek), Safia's niece, works as a nurse at Qasr El-Eyni; she falls for intern Khaled (Ahmed Safwat), training him in surgery until he becomes a skilled surgeon. She proposes to him, sells her land, and, using her savings alongside some loans, opens "Leil Specialized Hospital" in his name and takes over administration. They have a daughter, Maryam, but Leil mistakenly carries a box of narcotics, gets arrested for drug trafficking, and is sentenced to 10 years, being released after 7 for good behavior, only to find her husband sold the house and hospital and vanished with Maryam. Abeer El-Sayed Ahmed, alias Bero (Heidy Karam), is an extra seeking stardom at any cost; she marries writer Essam (Alaa Morsy) to help advance her career, but after he asks her to quit and stay home, they separate, leaving her vulnerable to exploiters demanding sexual favors for false promises. Walaa Mokhtar (Marwa), an unmarried woman of Levantine descent, works at a translation agency and has a love affair with Alaa (Mohamed Mahmoud Abdelaziz), the owner of a boutique on the building's ground floor, though she refuses his advances until marriage. Asmaa Ramadan, alias Semsem (Marwa Abdelmonem), an orphan from the countryside who came to Cairo seeking a living, is taken in by the warm-hearted Walaa, who houses her at the pension and gets her a job at the agency. Semsem finds her soulmate and prepares to marry him in two weeks; however, the wicked Alaa harasses her, and when she resists him, he tries to drive a wedge between her and Walaa. Amina El-Morsy, alias Amani (Amira El-Sherif), an Upper Egyptian girl, falls for fellow townsman Ahmed (Azzouz Adel), flees her family to marry him, and stays at the pension during her early pregnancy while he travels abroad to a Gulf country to secure their future, but her brother Madkour hunts her down to commit an honor killing. Karima Abdelkarim, alias Koki (Abeer Sabry), fled family poverty to work in a Moroccan bathhouse for women before moving into male massage parlors, selling her body for money until she is invited to meet a man for a huge sum and goes to see him. Karim Rafaat (Ehab Fahmy), an Abdeen detective officer suspicious of the seven women, waits to catch them in the act. Leil tracks down Khaled, who confesses he sold everything and took Maryam to spare her public shame, promising Leil a reunion soon. Amani gives birth to a baby girl. One day, while the women are occupied and each is alone in her room clad only in a towel, naked men sneak through the kitchen door into the boarding house; the police raid the place, arresting everyone on prostitution charges. However, forensics proves Semsem is a virgin, despite the claim of the man caught in her room that he slept with her thrice, while the men claim they do not know one another despite arriving simultaneously. The medical examiner also confirms that Amani could not have engaged in sexual activity having just given birth. The prosecutor (Abdelhamid Sanad) releases the women, yet scandal ruins everything: Khaled and his daughter abandon Leil, the groom deserts Semsem, Madkour locates Amani, abducting and murdering her in their home village, and Koki discovers she has uterine cancer. The women learn that Alaa framed them and confront him with bladed weapons; he promises to reveal who hired him the following day. Bero drops her knife in Alaa's shop, where the next day he is found murdered in the lightwell with Bero's knife, which is then found in Leil's room with Bero's fingerprints and Alaa's blood. The women are arrested and sentenced to death. Detective Karim receives word that Koki opened a private Moroccan bathhouse, and further investigation reveals her complicity in the murder. She confesses that Alaa met her and offered 100,000 pounds to frame the women for prostitution; she unlocked the kitchen door for the men, and when Alaa refused to pay the remaining balance, she murdered him and dumped him in the lightwell. She also reveals that Dr. Khaled hired Alaa to frame his wife Leil for prostitution to keep all her wealth after previously framing her on drug charges, and Koki admits to planting the bloody knife in Leil's room. Leil and Bero are exonerated, Koki is arrested for premeditated murder, Khaled is arrested for incitement, and Leil regains her daughter Maryam and her fortune. She buys a large house where the women live together after Maryam and Amani's orphaned daughter join them. (Those Who Were Ashamed Are Dead)
- CategoriesDrama
