Marios Pontikas

The daughter of a powerful husband in a mountainous village in Greece is being forced to marry a wealthy villager while loving a poor lad. Her beloved will leave the village, giving an oath to return and marry her.

Crete 1897. Greek rebels gained their freedom by fighting in the mountains. An allied fleet of French, English, Italian and Russian warships anchored in the port of Chania in protecting Greek and Turkish inhabitants. Rosa Bonaparte, accompanied by twelve girls off at a deserted beach with all the equipment of a Marseille brothel. Installed in a wing of a huge, ruined former Town Hall, where the officers of the allied fleet meet and entertain in the evenings surrounded by undercover agents, military connectors, and speculators : an East-West mosaic of languages, costumes and intrigue ...

Ali, a Kurdish refugee, travels to Athens in search of his missing brother. He discovers that his brother paid to be smuggled into Italy but then disappeared, so Ali tries to find his brother and get his way into Italy.