The struggles in the Levant after World War II are brought painfully to life in this delicate, compassionate novel.

Ossyane, a young Lebanese of both aristocratic Ottoman and humble Armenian origins, goes to Montpellier, France, to study away from the burden of his liberal father's revolutionary ambitions. World War II breaks out and Ossyane is drawn into the Resistance, where he meets Clara, who is Jewish. He returns to Beirut and, despite the obvious obstacles, to a happy marriage with Clara. The Jewish-Muslim couple move to Haifa, but if one war has made a hero out of Ossyane, another, much closer to home, is destined to split him from his wife and separate him from the people and the world that he loves.