In the near future, in the aftermath of a severe storm that hits the city of New York, the era of paradoxes dawns. A completely grounded gardener suddenly rises from the ground and remains suspended. A comic book artist wakes up in his room to find himself confronted with a mysterious entity, strikingly similar to the Indian hero he created with his pen. An abandoned baby, deprived of his mother, possesses the innate ability to detect corruption and mark the guilty with skin lesions. A captivating gold digger will be recruited to fight forces more powerful than any imagination.

They do not know it, but they all descend from the peculiar creatures known as jinn, who inhabit a world separated from ours by a veil. Centuries earlier, Dunia, princess of the female jinn, fell in love with a mortal rationalist philosopher and gave birth to a huge number of descendants, who, unaware of their supernatural abilities, spread throughout the world.

From the moment the borders of the two worlds are violated, Dunia's children, along with their earthly allies, will play a vital role in the war between light and darkness, fighting for a thousand and one nights - which means two years, eight months, and twenty-eight nights. It is a time of staggering upheaval, during which words will become poison, silence a disease, and every sound a possible curse.

Inspired by traditional myths of the East, Salman Rushdie's novel is a masterpiece about the primordial conflicts that continue to exist in our world.