In this final volume of Naguib Mahfouz's masterpiece trilogy, al-Sayyid Ahmad is aging, ill, and confined behind the mashrabeya that once confined his wife. But in his grandsons we see a modern Egypt emerging: one becomes a communist activist, another a Muslim fundamentalist, both working for what they believe will be a better world. And a third launches a promising political career abetted by a homosexual relationship with a prominent politician.