[2] From a remote Greek island,[4] he retells his time in Alexandria and his tragic romance with Justine – a beautiful, mysterious Jewish woman who was born poor and is now married to a wealthy Egyptian Copt, Nessim.

[2] Justine is portrayed by Durrell in a manner which 'mirrors' Alexandria in all of its complexities, with its mixture of elegance and extreme poverty, and its ancient Arab ways co-mingled with modern European mores.

[2] Durrell uses a highly poetic, allusive, and indirect prose style in Justine similar to the "epiphanies" of James Joyce, which places more emphasis on the lyrical dimension of the novel.

[2] Although the reader initially assumes that the "chief protagonist" of the novel is the eponymous Justine, Durrell gradually builds the structure of the work around the conceit that the city of Alexandria is the most important player.

Many of these characters practice, at least, one of the major religions of the region, but none are very religious in the more traditional sense of that notion, and Durrell describes them as "all hunting for rational reasons for believing in the absurd.

Additionally, there are initial inklings of a socio-political narrative dealing with the workings of the British secret service,[4] a story-line that becomes much more extended and eventually takes centre-stage in the next two books of the quartet, Balthazar and, especially, Mountolive.