[1][2] The plot follows an unnamed Zanzibari man living in England, after fleeing there in the early 1960s.

[3] In England he becomes a teacher and raises a daughter with his white English lover.

After his 20-year exile from his homeland, the narrator travels back to Zanzibar to reflect on his past and finds a place that is no longer home.

A reviewer for Kirkus Reviews described it as a "beautifully calibrated story of a wrenching search for home" and praised its themes of immigration and colonialism.

[2] Publishers Weekly applauded Gurnah's examination of cultural issues and the narrator's characterization.