Khaled's family hears Hosam Zowa's story 'The Given and the Taken' broadcast on the BBC Arabic World Service in Benghazi.

After discovering Professor Walbrook's essay in a journal, Khaled enrolls at the University of Edinburgh and befriends Mustafa al Touny.

Khaled and Mustafa travel to London together to attend an anti-Qaddafi demonstration outside the Libyan embassy.

Gunmen shoot from the embassy windows at St. James's Square, wounding both Khaled and Mustafa in the crowd.

Khaled flees St. James's Square without helping Mustafa and collapses on a side street where a stranger calls an ambulance.

Khaled wakes from surgery at the hospital, where staff give him the false name 'Fred' to hide his identity.

Khaled and Mustafa are reunited in the hospital eleven days after the shooting and learn Qaddafi ordered the attack.

Rana Lamesse warns Khaled not to return to Edinburgh and offers him her family's London flat for safety.

With Professor Walbrook's encouragement, Khaled moves into his own Shepherd's Bush flat and enrolls at Birkbeck College.

While visiting Rana in Paris for her brain surgery, Khaled grows suspicious of a hotel concierge using a false name.

The concierge reveals himself to be Hosam Zowa at a Paris café, and the two men begin spending time together.

Hosam leaves Paris, moves to London, and rents the flat next door to Khaled in Shepherd's Bush.

As Arab Spring unrest intensifies, Mustafa and Hosam independently decide to fly back to Libya and join the revolution.

Qaddafi is killed and Hosam emails Khaled to describe his direct role in the capture and assassination.

Khaled visits St. James's Square for the first time in over thirty years, then walks home and makes his bed.

In 1980, a young Libyan student named Khaled first hears a haunting short story by a writer named Hosam Zowa on BBC radio, igniting a lifelong obsession. Three years later, Khaled moves to Edinburgh to study literature and befriends another Libyan student, Mustafa al Touny. Their lives are upended when they are both shot during an anti-Qaddafi embassy demonstration in London in 1984, forcing Khaled to abandon his plans and start over in the city. Eleven years later, Khaled discovers Hosam Zowa working incognito as a hotel concierge in Paris, and the two become close friends who eventually live as neighbors in Shepherd's Bush. Their bond endures even as the Arab Spring pulls Hosam and Mustafa back to Libya in 2011 to fight in the revolution against Qaddafi. By 2016, Khaled has spent over thirty years in London, and his brief farewell to Hosam triggers a night of reflection that ends with him returning quietly to his flat.

The central story of exile, survival, and friendship across thirty years.

Journalist Mohammed Mustafa Ramadan is assassinated in London after broadcasting Hosam Zowa's story on the BBC.

Khaled meets Rana Lamesse through a mutual friend at the University of Edinburgh and the two become close.

Khaled and Mustafa purchase balaclavas in London to hide their identities before attending the embassy demonstration.

As paramedics arrive after the shooting, Khaled gives them Rana Lamesse's name as his next of kin.

An unidentified Libyan visitor comes to the hospital and brings Khaled and Mustafa a care package.

Khaled calls home for the first time since the shooting and hears a threatening unknown voice interrupt the call.

Scotland Yard agents summon Khaled, assure him they are working on his case, and return the jacket he wore at the demonstration.

Rana invites Khaled on a trip to Costa Brava, where he and a woman named Seham share a kiss on the beach.

Khaled reunites with Mustafa at Café Cyrano after five months apart and they discuss their lives since the shooting.

Mustafa takes Khaled to a group dinner where Khaled recognizes the mysterious hospital visitor among the guests.

Khaled's family visits his Shepherd's Bush flat and he secretly shows his father Kamal his scar and tells him the truth.

Mustafa shows Khaled a YouTube video of Hosam's father publicly denouncing his own son as a traitor to Libya.

Hosam suffers a mental health crisis while on a trip to Devon with his girlfriend Claire.

A video circulates online showing Mustafa, Hosam, and fellow revolutionaries actively searching for Qaddafi's whereabouts.

Hosam stops in London for a brief visit at Khaled's flat on his way from Benghazi to San Francisco.

The events in this pool reveal the web of relationships and smaller moments that quietly shaped Khaled's life in exile. From the assassination of the journalist who first broadcast Hosam's story to Khaled's early friendships in Edinburgh, these scenes establish the emotional foundations beneath his displacement. The immediate aftermath of the 1984 embassy shooting — the hospital care package, the threatening phone call home, and Scotland Yard's involvement — shows how thoroughly the attack dismantled Khaled's sense of safety. Quieter moments of recovery, like the Costa Brava trip and the reunion at Café Cyrano, illustrate how Khaled slowly rebuilt his life alongside friends. But tension resurfaces years later when a YouTube video exposes Hosam's family's betrayal and Hosam suffers a private mental health crisis on the eve of the Arab Spring. The pool closes in 2016 when Hosam makes a brief stopover at Khaled's flat — the last time the two friends will share the same city.

Behind-the-scenes moments that shaped Khaled's decades in London.

Kamal researches Hosam Zowa's family history and discovers the Zowa family's controversial political ties under the Qaddafi regime.

Khaled tracks down the Zowa family house in Benghazi and stands outside, imagining Hosam's life within.

Khaled's parents warn him not to get 'lured in' to life abroad before he departs for Edinburgh.

Mustafa informs Khaled about the planned London embassy demonstration and convinces him they should both attend.

Khaled abandons Mustafa at the shooting scene and later feels overwhelmed with guilt when the two are reunited.

Khaled removes his blood-stained demonstration jacket from its envelope and throws it into a trashcan near Hyde Park.

Professor Walbrook visits Khaled in London and advises him on finding work, a new apartment, and a new school.

Khaled receives asylum in Britain, which helps him secure a grant to fund his studies at Birkbeck College.

A woman named Hannah becomes the first person Khaled tells about the embassy shooting and to whom he shows his scar.

Before meeting Khaled again in Paris, Hosam sends his brother Waleed to verify that Khaled is who he claims to be.

On Khaled's last day in Paris, Hosam reveals that he was present at the 1984 embassy demonstration.

At a café gathering with friends, Hosam toasts the anniversary of Mohammed Mustafa Ramadan's assassination and recounts how he died.

Hosam's father dies in Libya and Hosam writes to Khaled about his growing feelings for a woman named Malak.

During the Arab Spring, Khaled researches flights to Benghazi but never purchases a ticket to return home.

Khaled chases Hosam through King's Cross Station after their goodbye but cannot bring himself to call out to him.

This pool traces the pivotal choices and startling revelations that determined the direction of Khaled's life. It begins with his father's research into Hosam Zowa's controversial family history and ends with Khaled's inability to call out to Hosam at the train station — a gesture that encapsulates his lifelong difficulty acting on his deepest impulses. Between those bookends lie defining moments: being persuaded to attend the demonstration, abandoning Mustafa during the shooting, and rebuilding under Professor Walbrook's guidance after receiving asylum. The revelations in Paris — Hosam having Khaled verified through his brother and then admitting he was at the 1984 demonstration — deepen the mystery and intimacy of their friendship. As the Arab Spring erupts, Khaled faces his most defining choice: return to Libya or remain in England, and his failure to buy a plane ticket reveals the man he has become. Together, these turning points show how a series of half-made decisions and unexpected discoveries quietly shaped everything Khaled is.

The key decisions and discoveries that quietly built the walls of Khaled's London life.