At the outset of the novel, the narrator has returned from London after completing a doctoral thesis on an English poet. While gone, he longed for his people, and upon returning, he hopes to feel a sense of belonging once again. However, when he meets Mustafa Sa’eed, his sense of his village is upended forever: He is shocked to know that another villager might speak English and read poetry—all without the knowledge of his fellow men. 

After learning Mustafa Sa’eed’s full history, the narrator remains disturbed, and wonders whether he could have fallen into such a violent fate just as easily. After the man’s death, the narrator tries to put him out of mind, but even in his new career with the Department of Education in Khartoum, he frequently hears stories of the man. When the narrator discovers the death of Hosna, he is further pulled into the man’s story.

Ultimately, the narrator’s sense of belonging is destroyed: He realizes that his “modern” opinions of women’s rights and marriage have no place in his village. This results first in violence when he tries to strangle Mahmoud. Although he almost meets the same fate as Mustafa Sa’eed when he takes a swim in

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