The moufflon, a wild sheep prized for its meat, continues to survive in the remote mountain desert of southern Libya. Only Asouf, a lone bedouin who cherishes the desert and identifies with its creatures, knows exactly where it is to be found. Now he and the moufflon together come under threat from hunters who have already slaughtered the once numerous desert gazelles. The novel combines pertinent ecological issues with a moving portrayal of traditional desert life and of the power of the human spirit to resist.

One of the Arab world's most important writers, Ibrahim al-Koni has been called a master of magical realism and the evocation of the desert. He has distinguished himself for being brilliantly able to create so many ramifications around the simple world of the desert in Western Libya, proving as few have that human nature and the human condition are the same everywhere. He now lives in Europe. This is his first novel to be translated into English.