A twelve-year-old boy is sold by his father for debt to a wealthy merchant and is catapulted from the simple life of the African rural hinterland into the complexities of the fascinating world of the beaches, just before East Africa becomes the scene of fierce rivalries between German and British colonialists for its possession. natural wealth of the country. In this world, where Muslims and animist black Africans, Christian missionaries, Indian settlers and the first greedy European settlers coexist, in a delicate social balance, the young protagonist, Yusuf, will experience cruelty and kindness, violence and death, friendship and the first bouts of love, the blind thirst for profit and the adventurous daring of the itinerant merchants of the time. Following his master and his caravan through the most treacherous mountainous regions, the settlements of "savages" and the bustling ports of East Africa, Yusuf will tour a country plagued by the slave trade, tribal wars, superstitions and disease, with background the Edenic beauty of nature. A coming-of-age story and at the same time an epic narrative of rare lyricism.