In June 1942, the 8th British Army Corporal John J. Bramble is retreating from Rommel's Afrika Korps and has sunstroke, reaching a remote hotel in Sidi Halfaya. He is helped by the Egyptian owner, Farid, under the protest of the French chambermaid, Mouche, afraid with the imminent arrival of Field Marshal Erwin Rommel and the Germans that are heading to Alexandria and Cairo. John assumes the identity of the deceased Alsatian lame waiter Paul Davos to survive, but he discovers other secrets.—Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil