Before the curfew begins, the seven characters must make critical personal decisions, despite the atmosphere of fear and suspicion that surrounds them. On a larger scale, these decisions reveal the dilemmas faced in modern Turkey not only by individual citizens but also by the nation of Turkey itself.
The personal focus widens, as the author uses the conversations of the seven characters with each other, as well as their inner thoughts, to reveal the past and to fantasize about the future. This interweaving of inner and outer thoughts creates a complex web of consciousness. The reader comes to see the characters as whole people struggling with crucial issues in their lives and also gains fascinating psychological and political insights into century Turkey, caught between the twentieth old Ottoman past and an uncertain westward-oriented future.
