Usama travels by taxi toward the Jordan Valley, encounters Abu Muhammad who shares his family's exile history, a Kuwait‑bought watch, and his son Khalid’s torture; the group anticipates a checkpoint, while Usama wrestles with his training‑induced disillusionment and deep yearning for home.
Usama is detained at a checkpoint, subjected to a humiliating strip‑search and intensive interrogation by a Polish soldier, recounts his work and family‑reunion history, witnesses abuse of other detainees, and is finally released onto a taxi that returns him to the West Bank.
Usama’s return taxi becomes a micro‑cosm of occupation‑era dissent: passengers argue over Israeli‑made cigarettes, “protective tariffs,” and resistance; a fort‑armed woman in her forties challenges a bombastic nationalist, introduces the legend of Zarqa al‑Yamama, and later reappears healed; the barren landscape outside is described, and the vehicle finally stops in the town square.
Usama returns to his hometown, reunites emotionally with his mother, learns of family expectations about marriage, visits the ancestral mansion where he encounters his uncle Abu Adil, foreign journalists, and French cameramen discussing occupation‑related employment; he meets cousin Nuwar, discovers Adil’s deteriorating health and the house’s lack of servants, and promises to investigate Adil’s condition.
Usama’s mother urges him to take a job on his uncle’s farm and hints at marrying his cousin Nuwar, noting that there are no government or UNRWA positions available; despite his commitment to the resistance, Usama promises to visit the farm, deepening his personal dilemma.
Usama goes to his uncle’s abandoned farm, confronts the aging former farmhand Abu Shahada, learns that the farmhands now work in Israel and that the land belongs to a landlord Effendi, experiences the old man’s denial and anger, assaults him, and leaves the orchard in despair.
Adil travels with a convoy of Palestinian laborers to Tel Aviv, where a night‑time bus ride reveals their dire economic conditions, intra‑group tensions, and nostalgic grievances; an accident leaves elder worker Abu Sabir gravely injured, and Adile’s desperate attempts at first‑aid expose the lack of legal protections for undocumented laborers.
Um Sabir and her husband Abu Sabir grapple with a severe injury (loss of part of his right hand), mounting medical costs for his dialysis machine, and the oppressive economic and political environment; Adil reflects on his own crushing burdens while the family prepares to leave home, invoking folk remedies, religious verses, and references to the broader occupation.
Usama meets Nuwar’s friend Lina, learns Adil is still on the farm, listens to Basil’s friends deliver a scathing monologue on the Palestinian education system and emigration, observes Nuwar crying over Salih, and departs the house to look for Adil.
Adil, drunk and disoriented, roams the night streets of Nablus with Usama, confronting his personal and collective anguish; he recounts Abu Sabir’s brutal hand injury, the insufficiency of medical care, the oppressive presence of patrol cars, and the endless cycle of suffering and false hopes, while debating the meaning of freedom and hunger with Usama.
Usama confronts a bread seller over Hebrew‑stamped, stale bread on a muddy street, then seeks refuge in Haj Abdullah’s grocery where he observes heated debates about inflation, labor exploitation, and political activism, meeting characters such as Basil, Hani, Radwan, and the shopkeeper while learning about the daily pressures on ordinary Palestinians.
Usama meets Adil and his colleague Zuhdi; Zuhdi recounts his multiple migrations, harsh labor conditions, exploitation by Jewish workers, and debates leaving the country, while mentioning Abu Sabir’s accident and the concept of “lishka” jobs, deepening the portrait of economic and political frustration.
Usama visits his injured cousin Abu Sabir; the family’s cramped courtyard reveals poverty, a silent four‑year‑old girl, and Abu Sabir’s wife. Adil presses for compensation for Abu Sabir’s work injury despite lacking a work permit, while the group argues about the prospect of war, occupation, and internal versus external responsibility. Usama, increasingly depressed, declares a vague future war, then abruptly leaves, prompting heated accusations and remorse among Adil, Zuhdi and Abu Sabir.
Usama confronts Adil in a workers’ cafe, trying to pull him away from his job in Israel; a heated exchange reveals their diverging loyalties and personal grievances. The encounter is interrupted by a sudden military clash—tanks, artillery, curfew, and a house explosion—followed by a chaotic street scene with children, soldiers, and an adhan. After the curfew lifts, workers resume their Egged‑bus duties while discussing recent arrests, and Usama remains torn between revolutionary duties and his bond with Adil.
Basil, a newly captured Palestinian youth, is brought to a guerrilla headquarters, given the nickname “Abu al‑Izz,” integrated into the group through drinks, food, and storytelling, is hailed as a hero at a celebratory party, delivers a hesitant speech, and, after witnessing the harsh realities of guerrilla life and the high price of “victory,” resolves not to join armed struggle.
Basil (now called Abu al‑Izz) is shown imprisoned in a fluorescent‑lit cell block where officers conduct roll‑calls and threaten violence; he fantasizes about killing a guard, recalls bail money and Red‑Cross aid, and hears a chaotic “good morning” address to an imagined listener. He eats a boiled egg for breakfast, joins prison‑wide education sessions that range from basic literacy to high‑school subjects, and works in the workshop folding plastic bags for a wage of cheap Umar cigarettes. In the evening assembly Salih delivers a politically charged lecture mentioning pragmatism, demagogy, capitalism, socialism, and compradorism, blaming Palestinians themselves for industrial underdevelopment and urging collective action. Inspired, Basil plans to steal Haj Abdullah’s crates of cola, pistachios and chickpeas while indulging in sexual fantasies about actress Suad Husni. The chapter ends with Basil’s internal monologue mixing hunger, desire, and a resolve to become “a man.”
Zuhdi is transferred to cell 23, where he is shunned by fellow inmates, subjected to repeated interrogations about alleged espionage and the killing of Shlomo, and forced to endure indifference. He reads a crumpled village letter aloud, momentarily brightening, then erupts in violent accusations toward the prisoners, smashing dishes and books. An older inmate named Adil intervenes, offers friendship, and proposes reading Naguib Mahfouz; Zuhdi protests his illiteracy but eventually engages in a chaotic “party” that devolves into a beating of another prisoner, who is then coerced into confessing that he is a spy.
Zuhdi’s severe constipation drives him into a bitter confrontation with Adil’s political rhetoric; the chapter shows prison daily life—weight‑lifting, a disciplinary council that punishes Mahmoud the peasant, the secret sharing of tea, the grotesque dynamics of power among inmates, Shlomo’s fatal injury, and the lingering hopes and despairs of characters like the Syrian guerrilla, Abu Sabir and the prisoners.
Zuhdi promises Abu Nidal eight cigarettes, fails to keep it, takes one from Israeli guards, is confronted by a five‑year‑old boy who claims to be his son, prompting a courtyard outburst of “Long live Palestine, Arab and free!”