On a white-hot day in Tripoli, Libya, in the summer of 1979, 9-year-old Suleiman is shopping in the market square with his mother. His father is away on business—except that Suleiman is sure he has just seen him, standing across the street wearing a pair of dark glasses. But why doesn’t he come over when he knows Suleiman’s mother is falling apart? Whispers intensify around Suleiman as his friend’s father disappears and his mother frantically burns his father’s books. As Suleiman begins to wonder whether his father has gone for good, it feels as if the walls of his home will break with the secrets held within.