A young man named Edward Middleton takes refuge from a storm and meets Achmed Ben Daoud, an emir whose mysterious gifts and interventions set off a chain of episodic misadventures. Each gift precipitates humorous and sometimes awkward encounters affecting acquaintances and strangers alike—spinster, friends, a student of heredity, a doctor, and romantic entanglements—whose fortunes and follies change in turn. The linked tales blend light satire and whimsical adventure, using a series of comic incidents to examine chance, consequence, and social manners.