Kemal and Sibel, children of two well-known families in the city, are preparing to get engaged. However, when Kemal meets Fusun, his distant cousin and a boutique saleswoman, he is enchanted. From then on, he constantly imagines his future with Fusun – and his life changes. His passionate love creates an unbridgeable rift that separates him from the bourgeoisie of Istanbul. 

For many years, Kemal obsessively collects all the things his beloved has touched, so that by looking at them, he always feels close to her. When Fusun dies, years later, Kemal buys her house to turn it into a museum, a tribute to her and to the life he never lived. A museum that will be both a map of a society and of his heart.

"A book about unfulfilled love, worthy to stand alongside Lolita, Madame Bovary, and Anna Karenina... Kemal's first-person narrative spans decades, presenting a captivating palimpsest of relatives and friends, the life and customs of the bourgeoisie in Istanbul."