A woman falls in love with an artist who comes sketching by the sea; the woman is married, in her late-thirties, and has turned deeply religious, having been affected, like so many educated, modern Muslim women, by the preaching of the fundamentalist Wahabi sect of Islam, and she takes to wearing the hijab with defiance. And then she finds love with a man who is slightly younger and very different to her.

This love story is used to explore the conventional view of Islamic teachings on women, how they misguidedly mould relationships and lives so that no transformation or psychological evolution can take place. This point of view is just a spark hidden in the story and the real thrust is on the love between the man and woman, of how what seems so black and sinful is yet so full of light.
The setting of the story is a place by the sea because there is a strange, compelling beauty to any place by the sea; an old, feudal family that once ruled over the area and still retains their heritage fort by the sea.

The weave and warp of the story is in the setting, in the vividness of the characters, especially the woman, a delightfully different and refreshing perspective, and in the exploration and discovery of something new and transforming in the relationship.