The story of Galip's search is interspersed with reprints of Celal's columns, which are lengthy, highly literate meditations on the city and its history.

Galip starts getting mysterious phone calls from one of Celal's obsessed fans, who displays an astonishing familiarity with the columnist's writings.

Galip finally agrees to meet both of them at a public location, a store called Aladdin's that figures in much of the narrative.

The story is more concerned with exploring the nature of story-telling as a means of constructing identity than with a straightforward plot.

The plot shows how he gradually changes his identity to become Celal, living in his flat, wearing his clothes and even writing his columns.

This is a city where East and West, antiquity and the modern, Islam and the secular, the rich and the poor, the pashas and the peasants are all present.

Should the Turkish people embrace Western (European) culture, or should they remain true to their heritage?

The novel in many cases implies that embracing the former will destroy not just historical and cultural heritage, but also the Turkish people themselves (see part where Galip takes the tour of the underground mannequin museum).