Morocco, 1906

The country is caught between growing European influence and domestic instability.

As young women disappear from the alleyways of Marrakesh, Farook Al-Alami, a detective from Tangier, is summoned to solve the case of the apparent abductions.

Investigating crimes in a country without a police force, Farook enters Marrakesh on the orders of the Sultan. But, in a city under siege from famine and fear, he must rely on his own intuition and skill to uncover the mystery of the women's fate.

Will anything halt the spate of disappearances until then? And can a single, criminal pair of hands lie behind events? As the story of the missing women becomes increasingly treacherous, suspicisons escalate around Jemma el-Fna, where the dead assemble.