When Shehab, a young software designer, runs afoul of a loan shark, all avenues of escape in Mubarak's corrupt, chaotic Egypt seem to be closed to him. Getting help from the bank is impossible without connections, and Shehab's uncle abroad wants nothing to do with his troubles. A powerful businessman offers assistance, but the next day Shehab sees him being stabbed in an alley--and the man's dying words suggest a conspiracy extending to the upper reaches of the regime.

Angry and broke, Shehab enlists his friend Mustafa in a bank heist--and falls into a vortex of financial and...