The ancient city of Cairo is a melting pot of the old and the new, of the super rich and the desperately poor, of people determined to pull themselves up - whatever the cost - and of others who are just trying to survive in a world of inequality and corruption. It's a place where grudges and long-buried secrets can fester, and where people can disappear in the blink of an eye. And it is home to Makana, a former Sudanese police inspector, forced to flee for his life from the country of his birth, and now living in a rickety houseboat on the Nile. Haunted by the ghosts of his past and trying to make ends meet as an occasional private detective, Makana is disconcerted to be summoned to a meeting with the dangerously rich and notoriously corrupt mogul Saad Hanafi, owner of the Cairo soccer team, whose star player, Adil Romario, has gone missing. Makana, despite his pedigree, soon finds himself in over his head, caught up in a mystery that takes him into the treacherous underbelly of his adopted city, encountering Muslim extremists, Russian gangsters, vengeful women and a desperate mother hunting for her missing daughter - a case that stirs up painful memories for Makana. And he is beginning to suspect that an old enemy from Sudan might still want him dead...