"Al-Àyshuni, a middle-aged painter of bohemian and political inclinations, has fallen in love with a younger woman, the alluring Ghaylana. But fate intervenes when she leaves him for new adventures in Spain. In time, al-Àyshuni befriends Ghaylana's daughter, the impressionable Fatima. Even as al-Àyshuni struggles to recapture the "fugitive light" of his lost youth - as well as that of a younger generation of artists and activists - so Fatima discovers the twin fires of love and revolution, both of which are doomed to extinction."--BOOK JACKET.