The novel alternates between third-person narration of Said Mahran’s thoughts and actions, and Said’s first-person stream-of-consciousness narration. Said is just out of prison; he was there for four years for theft, after having been turned in by his former pupil Ilish Sidra. Said’s anger toward Ilish is matched by his anger towards his ex-wife Nabawiyya, who divorced him while he was in jail and married Ilish, taking her and Said’s young daughter Sana along with her.
Said’s thoughts are consumed with fantasies of revenge and getting his daughter back. He shows up near Ilish Sidra’s home and a crowd gathers around him. Ilish invites him up, and Said endures humiliation from Ilish and his crony, the detective Hasaballah. They tell him he cannot have his daughter because she belongs with her mother and the court would never support his wresting her away. When they bring Sana in, she does not know Said and makes him feel terrible with her crying and yelling for her mother.
Said leaves, pretending he will get a normal job and get his life together, but he is planning something terrible. He visits the home of the holy Sheikh, whom his late father used to seek for companionship and counsel. The Sheikh speaks in riddles to him, and although confused, Said stays because has nowhere else to go.
Said plans to visit his former friend, Rauf Ilwan, a (former) revolutionary and newspaper writer to whom Said was close in the past when they were young and in the military. When he arrives at Rauf’s house, he is surprised to see how grand it is. Rauf welcomes him in but it is not long before Said sees that something is different about his friend—he is colder, more urbane, less sincere. He expresses disgust when Said says he might go back to thieving, but refuses to give Said a job at his newspaper. All of this is profoundly disconcerting to Said, who decides after leaving Rauf’s home that he will come back later and rob him. When he returns, though, Rauf is waiting for him and tells him he expected Said to do this and that he is utterly worthless. He does not summon the police but tells Said that he never wants to see him again.
Said goes to a café he used to frequent, and asks his friend, the proprietor Mr. Tarzan, for a revolver. Tarzan complies and tells him Nur, a prostitute with whom Said had some former relations, is upstairs. Nur comes down and is shocked to see Said. She had been in love with him in the past but he only loved his wife. He thinks to himself that she looks more ragged, and has no self-respect, but has her help him rob one of her clients and procure the man’s car. He promises her he will come and be with her soon.
Said drives to Ilish’s home and parks the car out of the way. He breaks a pane of glass and hears a man come out asking who is there. Said yells and shoots, and runs off. He cannot believe he is a murderer now, but the thought gives him some pleasure. However, in the morning the papers blare that he killed the wrong man—an innocent man named Shaban Husayn who’d moved his family into the flat after Ilish rapidly vacated it. Said is gobsmacked but also a little pleased with what a sensation he is.
He decides to go stay with Nur, who lives in a small flat near a cemetery. She is immensely pleased to have him, not quite understanding what he has done. The days are long and dull for Said, who has to stay out of public view now that the police are looking for him. He is obsessed with revenge, especially against Rauf. He has Nur bring him cloth that he sews into a military uniform so he will be less conspicuous outside. When she realizes what he has done, she begins to doubt their future together.
With intel from Tarzan, Said ambushes a former friend and now crony of Ilish’s, Bayaza. He asks for information on Ilish and the man tearfully tells him no one knows where Ilish went. Said realizes he is telling the truth and Ilish and Nabawiyya are out of his grasp. He contents himself with getting Rauf now.
Said surreptitiously goes to Rauf’s house one night and waits to see his car pull up. When it does, he shoots him but hears shots fired back as well. He flees to Nur’s house. She is visibly distressed about the blood on his leg, and moans that they are doomed and that he does not love her. Said actually feels much more affection, even love, for her now.
To his distress, the next day Said once again realizes he murdered an innocent man—Rauf’s doorman. He tells himself if the man works for Rauf, he deserves it. Alone in Nur’s place, he looks out over the graveyard and gives his statement about why what he has done is right and just. He knows the living people in Cairo and the dead would agree that he is a great man.
Nur expresses more frustration with him. In the morning he sees that she is gone, and wonders briefly if she turned him in for reward money. He comforts himself that she would never do that, but becomes more and more worried as the hours pass. At one point the landlady comes to the door and bangs on it, asking for rent.
He goes to Tarzan’s café for food and when he returns, there is a light on in Nur’s place. Overjoyed, he knocks on the door but a man in his underwear who Said does not know answers. He beats the man up for fear that he recognizes him, and leaves. He knows he will never see Nur again.
The only refuge is the Sheikh’s house, where he sleeps and eats. He hears that the quarter is shut down in a manhunt for him, and sneaks away to the cemetery. There he is found by police and dogs, who corner him and, when he starts shooting, shoot him and mortally wound him.
