A sweeping & evocative portrait of both a family & a country struggling to move toward independence in a society that has resisted change for centuries Set against the backdrop of Britain's occupation of Egypt immediately after World War I Palace Walk introduces us to the Al Jawad family Ahmad a middle-class shopkeeper runs his household strictly according to the Qur'an while at night he explores the pleasures of Cairo A tyrant at home Ahmad forces his gentle oppressed wife & two daughters to live cloistered lives behind the house's latticed windows while his three very different sons live in fear of his harsh will