Arta 1854, Ottoman rule. Two boys, destined to become brotherly friends, are born on the same night, Liontos and Nezip. The novel sequentially follows their lives from each one's perspective in peaceful times, as well as in times of tension and revolution, uniquely depicting an entire era.
Mutual teaching school, playful pranks on their lifelong sworn enemy Fasganos, the twin Jews Yosef and Menachem, the love that will have an unexpected development for both friends, the figures of the two mothers Agni and Safiye, the cosmopolitan Anastasia, balls, Café Aman, stone fights, Ramadan, hammam, Turkish Karagiozis, prostitution, excommunications, serfs, landlords, the tough guys of the era, nationalism and intolerance, wealth and destitution, sweet and bitter life. Everything has a place in God's imaret, as says Grandpa Ismail, the wise, humanitarian, and leading figure in the dance of heroes, who condemns human vanity and petty behaviors in a sarcastic manner.
In the shadow of the clock that strikes the Ottoman hours, Greeks, Ottomans, and Jews manage, despite the powers that be sowing discord and despite their differences, to coexist, to dream, to hope, to fall in love, and to develop solid friendships.