The date is November 1973, shortly after the Yom Kippur war in the Middle East, as a Dutch cargo vessel arrives in the Syrian port of Latakia. Due to a boycott action against the ship, things go badly wrong. The ship becomes unmanageable and collides with a Soviet frigate, which opens fire at the unlucky vessel. The crew then is taken hostage by the Syrian regime, but Nick de Rooij, the apprentice officer, manages to escape.

Unwittingly he becomes involved in the Arab-Israeli conflict. He escapes from Syria with the help of a young Palestinian woman and ends up with her family in a refugee camp in the north of Lebanon. His attempt to reach Beirut ends in disaster, and although he eventually reaches home, he is badly traumatised.

Years later he works as a Mate in cargo ships, but he is still plagued by nightmares and hallucinations. He returns to Lebanon to confront his trauma. In the chaos of the Lebanese civil war he finds a job with the United Nations to search for his past.