The tale of a Mafia-like don in Egypt. He lives in a mansion in Cairo, uphill at the end of an alley whose inhabitants he exploits. He is the patriarch of a large family whose wealth comes from dealing in drugs and various protection rackets. While family members jockey for power, the people below live in squalor, dreaming of the revolutionary heroes their poverty produced. An expose of injustice in Egypt by a Nobel Prize winner and author of 30 novels....

Continuing the story of al-Sayyid Ahmad and his family, this is a fascinating look at Egypt in the 1920s. Increased personal freedoms mix tenuously with traditions of family control, as two of Ahmad's sons court alluring women. Sequel to "Palace walk" and second story in "The Cairo trilogy".