Huyendo de la mítica isla de Zanzíbar, tierra de mercaderes de perfumes y especias acunada por los monzones, Saleh Omar, un comerciante de 65 años, llega al aeropuerto de Gatwick con una caja de caoba llena de incienso y un pasaporte falso. Para comunicarse con él, los servicios sociales recurren a Latif Mahmud, un poeta experto en suajili, profesor y exiliado voluntario que vive apaciblemente en un apartamento de Londres. Cuando los dos hombres se encuentran en una pequeña ciudad junto al mar, una larga historia de amores y traiciones, seducciones y decepción, azarosos desplazamientos y litigios iniciada mucho tiempo atrás empieza a desenmarañarse.

ENGLISH DESCRIPTION

On a late November afternoon Saleh Omar arrives at Gatwick Airport from Zanzibar, a far away island in the Indian Ocean. With him he has a small bag in which there lies his most precious possession - a mahogany box containing incense. He used to own a furniture shop, have a house and be a husband and father, but now he is an asylum seeker from paradise; silence his only protection.

Meanwhile, Latif Mahmud, someone intimately connected with Saleh's past, lives quietly alone in his London flat. When Saleh and Latif meet in an English seaside town, a story is unravelled. It is a story of love, betrayal, of seduction and of possession, and of a people desperately trying to find stability amidst the maelstrom of their times.