Exiled in a delapidated hotel in South-West France. Sharif, the narrator, looks back on his life. Memories of a bohemian existence in England and France, a time of love affairs and dissipation, are set against the changing political situation of his North African homeland. The experience of his own nation, with its promise of freedom, is echoed in Sharif's life. With sardonic humour Sharif describes the wealth of characters who have passed through his life.

Yet how can he make sense of this life as everything he believes in begins to crumble?