The novel is set during the early 1980s whilst Egyptian President Anwar Sadat was introducing the infitah or open door free-market economic policies which led to widespread unrest.

Elwan refuses to accede to corruption or outside work to improve these circumstances, and both characters are noble and proud but perceived by others to be impractical and stagnant.

Randa is pressured by her family and her government superior - Anwar - to break off the engagement as her advancing years means she will soon find herself too old to be desirable to potential suitors.

Muhtashimi is disappointed that his beloved grandson finds himself in his situation, and his narrative questions the direction of the country which as a younger man he had ardently fought to create as an activist teacher in the nationalist movement.

Punctuated throughout the novel are comments on the decline of Sadat's Egypt and the increasing national despair amidst a revolution that has gradually lost its way.

Elwan, unable to bear the social pressure and the lack of support for continued engagement from his family or colleagues, releases Randa from her obligations to him, despite great personal angst at betraying his love for her.