Mutaa, an average psychologist, is invited to attend a conference he knows nothing about. Who invited him and why? He does not know either. Nonetheless, he accepts the invitation because, after all, who dares ask the why questions in his country? He is soon arrested during the conference and finds himself in a prison cell, not knowing why or how. For twenty years, Mutaa is whipped by his torturer, whose voice he never forgets. He is accused of some crime he has no idea about and is thrown a pen and paper every day, to write his diaries and every single detail about his life. The interrogators ask him about his relationship with the eminent Italian director Fellini. He understands nothing, though the whipping and verbal abuse do not stop. Twenty years later, Mutaa comes face to face with his torturer, whose voice he instantly recognises, and who is an entirely different person now—and the story takes a different path. The novel takes place in a country we do not know, though we do know it is an Arab country. “To those whose screams were unheard. To those who could not scream at all,” writes the author.