Veronika, a twenty-four-year-old girl from Ljubljana, seems to have everything one could wish for: she is young and beautiful, surrounded by young men, has a harmonious family and a job that fulfills her. But there is something missing in her life.
The novel takes place in the 19th century, and tells the story of two young friends, the fourteen-year-old Pole Stanislaw and his eight-year-old friend Nel from England, who were kidnapped in Sudan by the rebels of the Muslim priest Mahdi.