Taha, the doorkeeper's teenage son, finishes his dawn prayers and prepares for his long-awaited Police Academy interview.

Taha is disqualified from the Police Academy after being exposed for lying about his father's profession on the application.

Zaki Bey wakes after his night with Rabab to find his wallet and his sister's diamond ring have been stolen.

Dalwat discovers her ring is gone and throws Zaki Bey out of their shared apartment.

Hagg Azzam arranges a secret marriage to Souad Gaber, a young divorcee from Alexandria.

Hagg Azzam writes a check for a million pounds to the corrupt politician Kamal el Fouli to secure his place on the ballot.

Zaki Bey, living out of his office after being evicted by his sister, hires Busayna as his secretary.

Hagg Azzam wins his parliamentary seat and slaughters three bullocks to celebrate his victory.

Taha is seized by police at a student protest and subjected to sexual torture during his interrogation.

Souad tells Hagg Azzam she is two months pregnant and refuses to consider an abortion.

A group of men break into Souad's apartment at night, inject her with a sedative, and force an abortion.

Busayna, overwhelmed by guilt and genuine affection for Zaki Bey, tells Malak she is withdrawing from his fraud scheme.

Abduh's infant son dies in the hospital, and Abduh ends his relationship with Hatim, fearing divine punishment.

Taha is shot and killed in the street while carrying out a terrorist attack on a police officer.

Zaki Bey and Busayna get married and celebrate with old friends at a party in Maxim's restaurant.

The Yacoubian Building weaves together the stories of Cairo residents whose lives intersect through a single crumbling landmark. Taha, the doorkeeper's son, loses his dream of joining the police when he is caught lying on his application, setting him on a path toward radicalization and death. Zaki Bey, an aging womanizer, is robbed and evicted by his sister before finding genuine love in Busayna, his new secretary. Hagg Azzam buys his way into parliament only to discover he is a small cog in a machine far more corrupt and powerful than he imagined, while his secret wife Souad is forcibly aborted and cast aside. Hatim's relationship with Abduh collapses after Abduh's son dies and Abduh breaks away in guilt, ending in Hatim's violent death. The novel closes with Zaki and Busayna's wedding, the one bright ending in a story otherwise defined by corruption, violence, and loss.

The headline events that define each character's fate.

Busayna's father dies suddenly, leaving the family destitute and forcing Busayna to abandon her plans to marry Taha.

Busayna takes a job at Mr. Talal's clothing store and learns to endure his sexual harassment in exchange for extra money.

Abaskharon and his brother Malak bribe the Yacoubian Building's agent to secure a storage room on the roof.

Hatim Rasheed, a wealthy newspaper editor, enters the underground gay bar Chez Nous with a young military recruit named Abduh.

Abduh smashes a beer bottle trying to escape Hatim but ends up spending the night with him anyway.

Malak opens his roof workshop despite a violent confrontation with hostile neighbors that ends with everyone taken to a police station.

Taha enrolls at Cairo University and befriends a group of devout students who attend the campus mosque together.

Hatim buys Abduh a kiosk to run as a business so his lover can remain nearby in Cairo.

Kamal el Fouli tells Hagg Azzam at a Sheraton restaurant that the Big Man demands a cut of his profits.

Souad wakes in a hospital bed to find she has been forcibly aborted; Hagg Azzam sends word of divorce through his son.

Dalwat bribes police officers to raid Zaki Bey's apartment and arrest him together with Busayna.

Taha is married to Radwa, a martyred man's widow, in a ceremony held at the desert training camp.

Hatim searches desperately for Abduh and finally finds him sitting in a café in the Imbaba district.

Hatim and Abduh's final night together ends in a violent confrontation, and Abduh beats Hatim to death.

Hagg Azzam meets the Big Man and learns the government already possesses files documenting his entire narcotics operation.

Beneath the novel's headline events lies a web of secondary developments that explain how its characters arrived at their fates. Busayna's poverty after her father's death forces her into demeaning work, while Malak schemes his way onto the building's roof to launch his small business empire. Hatim begins his doomed romance with Abduh at the underground Chez Nous bar, financing his lover's life with gifts and a kiosk. Hagg Azzam's election triumph sours when Kamal reveals that a vastly more powerful figure demands a share of profits, and Souad's forced divorce is followed by her bitter awakening in a hospital bed. Taha trains in a desert jihadist camp and marries a martyr's widow, while Hatim tracks down the departed Abduh only to be killed in a final violent confrontation. The pool ends with Hagg Azzam's humiliating meeting with the Big Man, who holds a file capable of destroying him entirely.

The secondary stories that give the main plot its texture.

Zaki Bey is introduced making his slow daily walk along Suleiman Basha Street, stopping to greet everyone he knows.

Taha stops by Busayna's workplace on the morning of his interview and senses a troubling change in her attitude.

After months of enduring workplace harassment, Busayna finds she can no longer pray and grows cold toward everyone around her.

Hagg Azzam visits Sheikh El Samman about his renewed sexual urges and is advised to take a younger second wife.

Taha receives an official letter informing him that his written complaint to the President has been dismissed as unfounded.

Taha attends Friday prayers at a new mosque and is privately introduced to the firebrand preacher Sheikh Shakir.

Malak approaches Busayna with an offer of higher wages, his expression making clear he knows how she earns extra money.

Zaki Bey plays an Edith Piaf record in his office and draws close to kiss Busayna for the first time.

Taha and Busayna end their relationship after she criticizes his religious transformation and he refuses to compromise.

Sheikh Shakir shows Taha photographs of children wounded by American bombs and invites him to an anti-war demonstration.

Busayna finds Zaki Bey collapsed and vomiting on the floor and spends the night nursing him, realizing her feelings are genuine.

Hagg Azzam brings Sheikh El Samman to pressure Souad into an abortion; she accuses the sheikh of being bribed and defiantly refuses.

Sheikh Shakir drives Taha into the desert and hands him over to a jihadist cell led by a scarred man named Bilal.

Abduh's infant son falls gravely ill, and Hatim uses his connections to rush the child into a hospital's intensive care.

Taha recognizes his interrogation torturer's voice as his assassination target and leaps at the man before being shot dead.

The novel's emotional core is built from moments in which characters cross thresholds they cannot walk back from. Busayna's gradual dehumanization by workplace harassment, Taha's first contact with Sheikh Shakir's radical circle, and Zaki's surprising tenderness all mark decisive shifts in the story's direction. Malak's implied blackmail of Busayna and Zaki's kiss to Edith Piaf set a scheme and a love story on a collision course, resolved only when Busayna nurses the collapsed Zaki and chooses loyalty over fraud. Taha's path to violence accelerates when Sheikh Shakir uses war photographs to recruit him, then delivers him to a jihadist cell deep in the desert. Hatim's dependence on Abduh deepens even as the relationship unravels, culminating in a desperate reunion and a fatal fight. The pool closes with Taha's final act of recognition and revenge, in which he attacks his own torturer and is killed, bringing his entire arc to a tragic close.