Unconventionally, the novel uses a nonlinear representation of time and is told from multiple points of view. Set in Edmonton in 1995, it follows two main characters: Hamza, a former graduate student working as a dishwasher, and Yehat, a video store clerk and inventor. Both are Black Canadians. Stuck in a rut, their lives are going nowhere until a mysterious woman shows up, seduces Hamza and draws the two into a quest for a magic artifact.