The Cairo that Alaa Al-Aswany describes is a harsh city that subjects its residents to many concessions and bargains.
Inhabiting the Yacoubian Building in central Cairo are heroes, rich and poor, good and bad, floundering in the same predicament: thwarting Taha's dreams of a job in the police department. The deviation of the beautiful and poor Buthaina; The bitterness of Hatem Al-Ghali's life... and other examples of realistic characters that only the art of the novel can expose.