An elderly, immensely wealthy Bagdad merchant instructs his nephews with a framed memoir that recounts how a youthful father's forcible banishment, a small purse of dinars and a succession of indulgences, gambles and fortunate accidents produced his fortune. The narrative proceeds episodically through anecdotes about relatives, rivals and sudden reversals, with the narrator attributing outcomes to a mixture of relentless appetite for gain, opportunistic cunning and the inscrutable mercy of God, offering ironic observations on the uneven distribution of prosperity and the practical steps by which wealth is seized and preserved.