Tangiers in 1912 is an unusual city — sometimes the police are there, and sometimes they aren't. When Seymour of Scotland Yard arrives to investigate a murder things inevitably go wrong.

Seymour finds himself caught between the ancient and the modern worlds in this divided country, where tradition is harsh and limiting, and the future crashes in the form of a military boot. There is a woman, of course, to complicate matters, and soon Seymour comes to realize that the closer he comes to discovering the truth about the murder, the closer he may be to his own demise.