[1] The book is a political parable that describes the construction of an important bridge on the Via Egnatia in Albanian territory in the Balkans from 1377–1378, shortly before the occupation by the Ottoman Empire began.

[2][3] Told by an Albanian Catholic monk, Gjon (a name used by Northern Albanians who were mostly Catholic prior to Turkish invasions), the story of the bridge, as seen by Gjon is filled with prissy, unhappy bureaucrats, who take the events at face value without ever trying to understand the larger forces at work.

One of the startling events of the book is when a "volunteer" is immured inside the bridge in order to make a "sacrifice" to the river.

Though clearly a punishment for the crime of sabotage against the bridge, as Gjon recounts this event, it is less an act of vengeance than it is a true sacrifice.

[4] The New York Times called the novel "an utterly captivating yarn: strange, vivid, ominous, macabre and wise.