In the period of a week, through the daylight and nighttime hours, Galip, a young lawyer, embarks on the search of his vanished wife, Rya. Armed with a letter containing only nineteen words and a profound love for Rya, Galip takes on the identity of his wife's half brother Jelal, a newspaper columnist who had tried to instigate a military coup in the 1960's and allegedly betrayed the revolutionary cause, and who has also vanished. A magnificent mystery novel set in magical Istanbul.