Julian Valderrama, a young Spaniard from a small town, arrives to the International City of Tangier for reasons unknown to him. His only contact in town is Adelita who runs a boarding house with an iron fist. There he meets a mysterious woman who everybody calls the Duchess although no one knows if she is one, two young French teachers escaping their past, an eccentric Englishman determined to cross the Sahara on foot, and a comic individual dressed in a military uniform of his own making. Julian Valderrama is astonished by the diversity of the international city on the verge of losing its international status and tries to absorb as much of it as he can. He finds in the Duchess a mentor introducing him to the secrets of the city and a protector when in trouble. The death of the Duchess changes his life.