A devout Catholic, Domini is seeking peace after many years enduring the apostasy of her late father, Lord Rens.

On a train travelling south to the oasis town of Beni-Mora,[fn 1] she encounters a rude fellow, who is taciturn and self-absorbed.

Later, Batouch takes her to visit the garden of Count Anteoni; they pass a grand hotel, closed for the season, with a tower on top.

But he climbs back on and rides with her to the small nearby oasis of Sidi-Zerzour, where an immense guide named Mustapha takes them in hand.

Back at Beni-Mora, Boris secretly practices riding each morning before daylight, which pleases Domini who has observed him unaware.

Ten days have passed; Domini and Boris are married in the little church, despite Father Roubier's grave misgivings about the groom.

Batouch has organized a large expedition of camels, horses, grooms, and attendants, with supplies and tents for the newlyweds journey south on the road to Toumbuctu.

The storm tapers off, and the couple travel through the larger Garden of Allah, visiting distant towns and oases.

While visiting the French garrison town of Mogor, a disturbing incident occurs with Captain De Trevignac, who initially welcomes the couple.

But upon Ouardi bringing out a bottle of liquor, the good father recognizes it as a brand produced only at the Trappist monastery of El-Largani near Tunis.

They part forever, he to a monk's cell and a life of repentance and hard labor, she to the garden Count Anteoni has sold to her.

Major Minor Critical reception was enthusiastic, with one reviewer expressing admiration for the author's originality with a subject matter far from his previous books.

[6] The New York Tribune also offered a nuanced appreciation: "Mr. Hichens may not have made a lasting addition to literature, but he has written... a book which we cannot but admire while under its spell.

[10] Through his US publisher, Frederick A. Stokes, he released a statement clarifying the novel came about from his many visits to the region of Algeria he described, and from several stays at a Trappist monastery in North Africa.

[10] Reviewer George Murray identified two major themes running throughout the work: "the desert which is 'The Garden of Allah', and the Roman Catholic faith".

[12] The anonymous reviewer for The Evening Standard however, thought faith alone the dominant subject of the novel: "Running through the book is a strong religious motive, on which, indeed, the whole plot is built up.

[13] However, nothing appears to have been done on the stage until Liebler & Company obtained the rights and hired George C. Tyler to produce it, using an adaption by the author and Mary Anderson.

Gustav Holst composed a suite of music, premiered in 1912, titled Beni Mora after the fictional oasis town in Hitchens' novel.