East Africa, 1935. A nation sits at the brink of war, a city is fraught with conspiracy, and at the Cataract Café in Cairo, a colorful cast of characters - professional hunter Anton Rider, his estranged wife and her Italian lover, the pampered American twins Bernadette and Harriet Mills, a German freebooter who has stolen a fortune in silver from the Italian army, the Goan dwarf and café proprietor Olivio Alevado - gathers to gamble with destiny.