Kati Hirschel interferes for the third time. What she interferes with is, of course, none of her business whatsoever. Kebab is no longer hip, as Kati has discovered the advantages of a healthy diet. She hopes that this will help her avoid botox injections and other artificial beautification procedures. She has recently taken to having lunch, together with her fellow employee and friend Fofo, in a small eatery near her bookstore specialising in crime fiction. Every day, a beautiful woman sits alone in front of her salad, diagonally opposite her. When the news is all over the press that the daughter-in-law of an industrialist, Cem Ankarahgil, has died, Kati immediately recognises the stranger from the restaurant in the photo. This arouses her curiosity. Although the police believe it was an accident, Kati suspects something more sinister has happened.

Two men are making life difficult for Ece. The first is her father. Since losing his arm in a work accident, he believes he has a right to be malicious and to tyrannise the members of his family whenever the whim takes him. The second is Tamer. Ece is in love with him – but he is married and, for many years now, has refused to leave his wife and children. Finally, the young woman departs her beloved home town of Istanbul to seek her fortune in London. But life as an émigré is not what she had imagined. There is no real integration to speak of; rather, the Turks live in a parallel universe in which they hardly ever come in contact with England itself – and when they do, it is always negative. While cleaning dishes in a cheap barbecue restaurant, Ece is suddenly awash with memories. Images of her grandfather, himself an emigrant; as an Armenian silversmith in Istanbul, he too had been forced to start from scratch. But in the process, he met the love of his life – Ece's grandmother.