Waris (Liya Kebede) was born in the desert of Somalia and lived a nomadic life with her mother. At the age of three, Waris was subjected to female circumcision according to Somali customs. At the age of twelve, her father wanted to marry Waris to a 60-year-old man in order to get five camels. On the eve of her marriage, Waris, with the tacit consent of her mother, walked for a long time in the desert to seek refuge with her grandmother in Mogadishu, and also got the opportunity from her grandmother to work as a maid for the aunt of the wife of the Somali ambassador to the UK at that time. Shortly after arriving in the UK, war broke out in Somalia and the old government was overthrown. Waris took advantage of the chaos to flee the embassy again and wandered the streets of Britain. Waris met Marilyn (Sally Hawkins) who took her in on the street, and then met a mentor in the restaurant where she worked. She was eventually discovered to become a world-famous model and devoted herself to the cause of women's liberation. The movie "Desert Flower" is adapted from the autobiographical bestseller of Waris Dirie, a black model born in Somalia.