Inspector Michael Ohayon of the Jerusalem police must deal with profound ethical questions when he investigates the murder of a celebrated poet and professor of literature at the Hebrew University.

The body of a young Yemeni woman is discovered in the attic of a Bethlehem Road house, in a Jerusalem neighborhood famous for its impenetrability to outsiders. The victim, once a beauty, is no longer lovely -- her face has been brutally smashed. More than the usual horror greets Chief Superintendent Michael Ohayon in the closed and inscrutable Baka, for an old love and an unfinished romance await him there as well. But much more is concealed beneath...