Levon is a writer of Armenian extraction who lives in Rotterdam. He thinks back on his life in his homeland. About his brother-in-law Manuk who robbed dead Turks, about a brilliant Kurdish musician, a butcher with a red beard (from henna or blood), a 17-year-old girl with chestnut-coloured skin, a concubine and a Turkish Apollo with eight wives who likes burying himself in hot ash. His memory is also populated by beautiful thoroughbred horses, stray dogs, camel drivers, soldiers and Turkish policemen. This is contrasted with reality in Rotterdam, including a crime involving Armenian terrorists and a Kurdish tragedy.