The narrative opens in a sparsely populated North African valley where a small party of expatriates relax and trade gossip about a reclusive Englishman who wears Arab dress, lives in the desert, and avoids contact with women. Through their conversation—centered on a genial doctor, his wife, and a soldier—tensions emerge: curiosity about a restrained, moneyed loner, sympathy for a reserved woman trapped in an ill-suited marriage, and reflections on social isolation and cultural boundary-crossing. The story develops through these interpersonal tensions, local rumor, and the characters' impending departures and life changes.