With empathy, tenderness, and pain, Elias Khoury tells the tragedy of the Lebanese Civil War through the eyes and lives of five Beirutis. Khalil Ahmed Jaber is found dead in a refuse heap, and we follow a journalist investigating the crime. We learn about Khalil from his widow, an engineer, a concierge, the garbage collector who discovered his body, and a doctor. Beirut itself is also a transfigured victim, buried in the rubble of violence, destruction, and inhumanity.