Beginning and end

The mother suffers in supporting her four children after the father's death, and faces a severe economic crisis that drops the family to the lower floor of the same building. The eldest son, Hassan, is unemployed and turns into a singer and thug who accompanies dancers. As for Hassanein, he proposes to a girl from a wealthy family in pursuit of his social ambitions. Meanwhile, Hussein moves to work in another province trying to support his family. Nafisa works as a seamstress to help everyone, then her fate collapses into prostitution after being betrayed by her first lover. The novel was published in 1951, and it is Mahfouz's first novel to be adapted into a film directed by Salah Abu Sief in 1960.