Seated atop his camel, Ali felt the desert roll beneath him. Three days' ride ahead lay the Moroccan market town of Rissani, at the edge of the Great Sahara, where Ali and his father would sell their camels. But suddenly, out of nowhere, the wind came howling, and the whirling sand swallowed the sun, the camel herd, and his father. Stranded on the vast Sahara, Ali must summon all his courage to first find food and shelter, then his father. In the process, he learns the true nature of the desert and its people.