The novel follows multiple narratives written in the stream of consciousness format. The novel is set during the early 1980s whilst Egyptian President Anwar Sadat was introducing the infitah or open door free-market economic policies which led to widespread unrest. The plot revolves around a young Egyptian man who is in love with a co-worker, but her father will not permit their marriage because the young man cannot earn enough money to purchase and furnish an apartment. Told from the perspective of Elwan, Randa and Elwan’s grandfather Muhtashimi. Trapped in low-paid jobs amidst years of inflation and uneven distribution of wealth, Elwan and Randa’s engagement has persisted for years without Elwan found the means to fulfil the financial obligations for marriage. Elwan refuses to accede to corruption or outside work to improve these circumstances, and both characters are noble and proud but perceived by others to be impractical and stagnant. Randa is pressured by her family and her government superior – Anwar – to break off the engagement as her advancing years means she will soon find herself too old to be desirable to potential suitors. Anwar simultaneously pressures Elwan to reconsider his circumstances and introduces him to his widowed sister, Gulstan, who is wealthy and looking for a new husband. Elwan finds himself attracted to Gulstan and feels sexual desire he has had to long suppress on account of his attenuated engagement to Randa. Muhtashimi is disappointed that his beloved grandson finds himself in his situation, and his narrative questions the direction of the country which as a younger man he had ardently fought to create as an activist teacher in the nationalist movement. Punctuated throughout the novel are comments on the decline of Sadat’s Egypt and the increasing national despair amidst a revolution that has gradually lost its way.