A collection of stories that deal with the life of the middle classes and laboring masses of Cairo, as well as that of the Egyptian peasants in villages and small towns along the Nile, tell of the mass of humanity on the sidewalks and the noisy and chaotic traffic on the streets of Cairo, show the tremendous ebullience and sense of humor of the Egyptian people, say that the “system” cannot be broken, and that life will go on as it always has, and that an individual cannot undo what destiny has planned for him, and that Egypt is a very ancient country, with ancient customs and social and political practices that have endured for hundreds, if not thousands, of years. In short, the stories give a very penetrating, realistic, and lively picture of the people of a country that has literally been around since the dawn of civilization.