Kamal lives a life of cosmopolitan glamour, exploring the restaurants and boutiques of Istanbul with his friends and fiancé. In the newly modern city, they pride themselves on their liberal attitudes and Western style.

A chance encounter with Fusun, a working-class shop-girl, begins a long, obsessive love affair, one that draws him deep into Istanbul’s complex history, and uncovers the forces of class and gender that still control its inhabitants’ lives.