As a young man growing up under communism in South Yemen, Imran finds himself drawn to Hawiya, the daughter of an official in the Marxist party. He departs Aden to study in Paris, returning years later to Hawiya again; he finds that she is now a niqab-wearing Salafist, calling on people to join the conservative Islamist movement. The novel spans the 1960s to the early 21st century, from the independence of southern Yemen and the subsequent establishment of The People's Democratic Republic of Yemen, to the Unification of Yemen in 1990 and the Arab Spring.

As a young man growing up under communism in South Yemen, Imran finds himself drawn to Hawiya, the daughter of an official in the Marxist party. He departs Aden to study in Paris, returning years later to Hawiya again; he finds that she is now a niqab-wearing Salafist, calling on people to join the conservative Islamist movement. The novel spans the 1960s to the early 21st century, from the independence of southern Yemen and the subsequent establishment of The People's Democratic Republic of Yemen, to the Unification of Yemen in 1990 and the Arab Spring.