Twenty-nine refugees crowd into an inflatable zodiac boat meant for eight people to cross the Strait of Gibraltar.

The zodiac's motor breaks down mid-crossing, causing panic among the packed passengers on the dark water.

Aziz repairs the broken motor and then immediately swims to shore ahead of the other passengers.

Captain Rahal orders all passengers to swim to shore, and the overloaded boat tips, throwing everyone into the water.

Murad attempts to help a drowning Faten but must release her grip and leave her behind to save himself.

After reaching the Spanish beach, Murad is captured by a Guardia Civil officer named Martinez and his German shepherd.

Faten exchanges sexual favors with a Spanish guard to secure her release from detention.

Larbi discovers his daughter Noura has started wearing a hijab after her friendship with the devout student Faten deepens.

Larbi uses his government connections to arrange Faten's expulsion from university and to have her reported to the police.

Halima attempts to bribe a corrupt judge into granting her a divorce from her abusive husband Maati.

Murad negotiates a price of 20,000 dirhams with the smuggler Rahal to secure his place on the illegal crossing.

Halima's estranged husband Maati appears at her door, hands her divorce papers, spits on her, and leaves.

Faten sleeps with her favorite Spanish client Martín and realizes he is no different from any of her other customers.

Aziz returns to Morocco after years in Spain and finds he can no longer connect to his wife, family, or community.

Murad tells two American tourists a folktale about a rug weaver and realizes he is meant to be a storyteller.

The narrative opens with four Moroccan characters — Murad, Aziz, Faten, and Halima — crowded onto an illegal zodiac boat attempting to cross the Strait of Gibraltar into Spain. The crossing turns dangerous when the motor fails and the captain forces everyone into the water before reaching shore, leading to capture for most passengers. The 'Before' stories reveal the circumstances that drove each character to attempt the crossing: Larbi's persecution of Faten, Halima's failed bid to legally end her abusive marriage, and Murad's desperate negotiations with a smuggler. In the 'After' section, the characters' lives diverge sharply — Halima finally receives her divorce, Faten survives through sex work in Spain, and Aziz discovers he can no longer reconnect with his Moroccan roots. Murad, though unsuccessful in reaching Spain, finds his true calling as a storyteller and recovers a sense of purpose he feared he had lost. Together, these events form the essential spine of the novel's linked stories.

The headline events that drive all four characters from Morocco to Spain and beyond.

Murad studies his fellow passengers aboard the boat, noting the fearful Faten, Halima with her children, and the experienced Aziz.

Murad spots a body bag at the Guardia Civil post and vomits, then is handcuffed inside the holding cell.

Larbi's inherited prayer beads break on his way to work, filling him with dread that it is a bad omen.

Faten refuses to shake Larbi's hand when introduced at his home, immediately stoking his suspicion and dislike of her.

Larbi searches Noura's neatened room and finds books on political Islam, religious recordings, and writings by the dissident Sayyid Qutb.

Noura announces she will become a Moroccan middle school teacher rather than pursue her long-planned studies at NYU.

Larbi's friend Raouf informs him that Noura was caught helping Faten cheat on a university exam.

Halima dissolves a sorceress's magic powder into bread dough, hoping the spell will make Maati fall in love with her again.

Maati arrives home, admits he has been fired from his cab driver job, then beats Halima when she challenges him.

Aziz fixes a dentist's supposedly broken chair by simply pressing the power button and earns only ten dirhams.

Aziz says goodbye to Lahcen with a gruff brotherly hug and to his wife Zohra, who briefly breaks down crying.

Halima's neighbor's son passes his school exams, and the neighbor credits Farid's blessing rather than the boy's harder studying.

Faten tells her Spanish client Martín her real hometown and a few surface details about her life before sex work.

Zohra asks Aziz to move back to Morocco permanently rather than have her come to live with him in Spain.

Murad realizes he can only remember fragments of the stories his father told him as a child and feels a part of himself is missing.

This pool explores the texture behind the four characters' journeys, beginning with Murad's careful observations of his fellow passengers on the illegal boat and his devastating encounter with a body bag after his capture. In Larbi's story, the breakdown of his relationship with his daughter Noura is traced through a series of revealing confrontations, from Faten's refusal to shake his hand to Noura's quiet announcement that she will not attend NYU. Halima's descent and survival are illustrated through her desperate resort to a sorceress's magic potion and the brutal beating she endures after Maati loses his cab driver job. Aziz's farewell scenes — a painfully absurd dentist's visit and an emotional goodbye to his closest friend and his wife — capture the personal cost of choosing to leave Morocco. In the aftermath of the crossing, Halima watches her son Farid become an unwilling local saint, Faten carefully shares fragments of her real life with her client Martín, and Murad begins to reconnect with the childhood stories he had nearly forgotten.

The smaller but significant moments that reveal each character's inner world and daily struggles.

A Guinean woman vomits on Faten's shoes during the crossing, and Murad shares his water with Aziz and Faten.

Murad attempts to flee into the forest to escape the Guardia Civil but is caught and gives the officers a false name.

Larbi overhears Faten making critical remarks about King Hassan at his home and becomes deeply and privately alarmed.

Larbi tears the hijab from Noura's head in anger, but she calmly replaces it and walks out of the house.

Salma invites Faten to dinner hoping she will persuade Noura to attend NYU, but the dinner plan fails completely.

Halima asks her boss about emigrating legally to Europe and realizes for the first time that illegal crossing is her only option.

Lahcen screams at Aziz and knocks over the table when Aziz announces his plan to emigrate illegally to Spain.

Aziz asks Lahcen what will happen if his parents discover he is gay, and Lahcen quietly replies that they may already know.

Murad encounters the smuggler Rahal at a café and is pressured into reconsidering the illegal crossing to Spain.

Murad returns home empty-handed and learns his sister's suitor asked his uncle for her hand rather than Murad himself.

Halima rents a room in a slum after the failed crossing and begins selling her labor at the market each day to survive.

Faten takes a valium on Eid and watches television alone, unable to stop her thoughts from drifting to her lost college life.

Aziz visits his father's grave with Zohra and says aloud that he wishes he had been present when his father died.

Aziz boards the plane back to Spain feeling noticeably lighter, freed from the weight of Zohra's needs and expectations.

Murad closes his book after the tourists leave, already absorbed in the story he plans to write that night.

This pool tracks the pivotal moments of revelation and decision that alter the course of each character's life. On the illegal boat, small human exchanges — a vomiting passenger, shared water — precede Murad's desperate flight from the Guardia Civil and his deliberate choice to hide behind a false identity. In the 'Before' stories, key turning points accumulate: Larbi's overheard conversation with Faten about the king, Noura's defiant replacement of her hijab, and Halima's quiet realization that illegal crossing is her only escape from an abusive marriage she cannot end through legal channels. Aziz's story is defined by two charged revelations — Lahcen's unspoken identity and the crushing weight of his own farewell — while Murad's comes through confronting how invisible he has become in his own household. After the crossing, the characters' emotional reckonings deepen: Halima builds a fragile independence, Faten grieves a lost past on a holiday she can barely face, and Aziz stands at his father's grave overwhelmed by absence. Murad's final, quiet act of closing his book to begin writing marks the novel's most hopeful turning point — a self reclaimed not in Spain but through the act of storytelling.

The decisions, discoveries, and emotional reckonings that reshape each character's sense of self.