The setting is Cairo in June of 1945, during the last days of the Second World War. Gohar, a former university professor, encounters a young prostitute in an empty brothel and kills her in a moment of insanity. Assigned to the murder case, police inspector Nour El-Din stays on Gohar's trail hoping for a confrontation and confession of the crime. In this remarkable adaptation of the novel by Albert Cossery, both the detective and the criminal are faces with startling realizations as one closes in on the other.