In the Syrian city of Hama, beset by corruption and bloody clan alliances, Abu Asad, the court clerk, attempts to lead a quiet life of neutrality and compromise. But the conflicts touch his own family when his older brother arrives to claim his share of an inheritance and enters into a deadly struggle with a third brother. The fraternal friction reflects the corrosive effect of greed in modern Syrian society: one brother has returned from the Arab gulf states having internalized the consumer values of these societies, the other is involved in smuggling. Boutros contrasts the traditional beauty and style of life in Hama with its contemporary decline, as the River Orontes surges through time and the city. (Note based in part on an essay by Diane Jabbour in Critical Writing from the Arab World.)