Victor owns a civil engineering company. Due to problems on a building site in North Africa he has to go there, where he is confronted with memories of his youth, slowly plunging into a labyrinthine world where present and past intertwine.

The central character, 50-year-old Victor Ganz owns a thriving building and civil engineering company that operates worldwide. Some very costly problems on a building site in North Africa mean he has to go there (he hates traveling), to a country where he is confronted with memories of his youth, which have been carefully buried in the depths of his mind. Meetings in ministries, disinformation, the reappearance of a past love who had mysteriously disappeared, an investigation in the local underground to find her: Victor Ganz slowly plunges into a labyrinthine world where present and past intertwine.

Suddenly Victor hears the clacking of shoes. He recognizes the sound. Almost panicking, he gets up and looks around the bar. But there is no sign of her. Memories of his former lover appear before him as he sets foot on North African soil. Victor, a successful architect who owns his own building and civil engineering company, has to travel to North Africa because of problems at a harbor facility, a place he once left behind. But when he arrives, the visit to the construction site fades into the background; instead, he is confronted with his past, which he had previously suppressed. He sets off in search of Sonia, his lover who suddenly disappeared, a prostitute whose real name he never learned. Driven by the idea of finding her again, he visits the bar where he met her, goes to the motel where they slept together and meets people who knew Sonia. She seems so close to him, but yet elusive. In the course of the story, Victor goes from being a strict boss who directs everyone and has to have everything under control, to a driven man who navigates blindly through the poor cities of North Africa and the hot desert.