This novel tells the story of the Sudanese civil war between 1958 and 1965, through the character of Archangelo Elias, a successful physician who is popular among his professional and social surrounding, and known among his extended family for having no faith in any religious doctrine, as well as for his detachment to traditions and customs. He begins to see his long-time deceased father -- whom he only knows very little about -- in his dreams, and this is when his balanced life and its solid harmony will suddenly shake, his thoughts will become unsettled and he will enter in a spiral of anxiety and hallucinations that will start destroying his successful life. Archangelo decides to travel to the city where his father died forty years ago to discover his political and militant history