Follows the life of the abused, fatherless child through "his transition as a youthful agitator to a cunning politician and powerful member of the Baathist party...We follow the birth of Pan Arabism and the eruption of hostility toward the domination of the Middle East by Western powers...We see, too, the complex political, religious, and ethnic hostilities that have allowed him not only to rise but to stay in power"--Flyleaf.