Ziki is a Congolese boy living in a village with his mother. One day, while the two are playing, Ziki discovers a mysterious tunnel winding beneath the kitchen floor. Curious, he decides to venture in, but as he walks, he slips and falls to the bottom of the tunnel. He finds himself in a dark place, illuminated only by a strange, glittering soil. Ziki has no choice but to follow the single glowing path, which leads him to encounter eerie miners with gaunt and almost deformed faces, covered in that same brilliant substance, tirelessly digging to the rhythm of their chisels.
Ziki is frightened and disoriented, running amidst these strange figures without knowing where to go, until he finally finds an exit. Outside, however, he is met with a world of towering skyscrapers, large billboards, traffic, and a rush of people walking hurriedly. Many objects in that metropolis, from cell phones to computers in shop windows, from advertising panels to cars on the street, are stained with the same luminous substance that lies at the bottom of the mine and now colors Ziki's body as well. The child, fearful and confused, starts running so fast that the world around him changes shape and color, returning to the semblance of the Congo. However, the village is now destroyed by war and overrun by soldiers, who kill the men and rape the women. Ziki tries to reach his mother, but a soldier stops him and places a rifle in his arms. A noise catches him by surprise, and the boy instinctively fires, only to discover that the sound was his mother's footsteps, who now lies lifeless on the ground. For Ziki, though, it is too late; his eyes now shine with the same glimmer as the underground soil: he has become a child soldier.