An IT businessman, Alan, and his team are in Saudi Arabia to bid for a contract to supply a vanity project by the King. A folly city is being built in the desert but so far it is falling short of expectation due to lack of funding. They arrive to give a presentation but are put in a tent with no wi-fi, no food and every day discover that the King is unable to meet them or are fobbed off with excuses.
During the interminable wait, Alan thinks about his ex-wife, his grown-up daughter and his neighbour who killed himself. He has a cyst at the top of his spine, which he worries is cancerous.
He is introduced to wild drug and hooch-fuelled parties through contact with Danish civil servant Hanne, discovers some contradictions of life in Saudi Arabia through local taxi driver Yousef and develops a romantic attachment to doctor and surgeon Zahra
