Contents: 1. The summer of 1899; Nilofer returns home after an enforced absence; Yusuf Pasha's exile; Iskander Pasha suffers a stroke. 2. The family begins to assemble; the Baron makes an impressive entrance; Salman's melancholy. 3. The Baron reads an extract from the Qabus Nama on "Romantic Passion"; the unfinished story of Enver the Albanian; Sabiha and the Circassian maid who thought the only way of escape was to fly. 4. The Circassian tells her truth to the stone woman and bemoans her fate; how the rich cancel the love of the poor. 5. Petrossian tells of the glory days of the Ottoman Empire; Salman insists that the borders between fiction and history have become blurred; Nilofer writes a farewell letter to her Greek husband; Orhan's belated circumcision at the hands of young Selim. 6. Iskander Pasha asks his visitors to explain the decline of the empire; the Baron points to a flaw in the circle of equity; Salman's deep-rooted cynicism. 7. Nilofer tells the stone woman that Selim has stroked her breasts in the moonlight and she is falling in love with him; she is shocked to discover that her mother has been eavesdropping. 8. The day of the family photograph; Iskander Pasha insists on being photographed alone next to an empty chair; the story of Ahmet Pasha and how he pretended to be the Sultan. 9. Nilofer and Selim learn to know each other and she realises that her emotions are out of control. 10. A Greek tragedy in Konya; Eminesh arrives at the house; Nilofer is enchanted by Iskander Pasha. 11. Sara recounts her dream to the stone woman, igniting other memories and a few bitternesses. 12. Memed and the Baron have an argument on Islamic history in which Memed is worsted; Iskander Pasha recovers his power of speech, but prefers to thank Augiste Comte rather than Allah. 13. Salman meditates on love and talks of the tragedy that blemished his life; his cruel betrayal by Mariam, the daughter of the Copt diamond merchant Hamid Bey in Alexandria. 14. Nilofer is overcome by longing for Selim and decides to marry him; the Baron refuses to discuss Stendhal on love. 15. Nilofer sends Selim to clear his head by talking to the stone woman; he is surprised by the experience. 16. The committee for union and progress meets to discuss a conspiracy to overthrow the Sultan; the Baron unveils a spy; Nilofer would rather be an Ottoman than a Turk. 17. A mysterious Frenchwoman of uncertain disposition arrives unexpectedly and demands to see Iskander Pasha, who later reveals how he used to spy on a married woman in the baths in Istanbul. 18. The death of Hasan Baba, who is given a Sufi burial; the return of Kemal Pasha; Sara's anger. 19. The fragments of Kemal Pasha's life and his ambition to create the world's largest steamship company; Nilofer reflects on happiness and the meaning of life; the death of Mariam. 20. The confessions of Petrossian; the murder of Great-great-uncle Murat Pasha; the agony of Petrossian's family. 21. Selim is so impressed by the Paris journals of Iskander Pasha that he reads them twice; the Baron explains why the Parisian crowd was different from Istanbul; the troubled life of general Halil Pasha. 22. What Catherine told the stone woman ten years ago. 23. A messenger arrives from New York with a letter for Sara; Memed plots to marry Jo the Ugly to one of Kemal Pasha's daughters. 24. The century prepares to enter its grave; Selim and Halil discuss the future; Dante and Verlaine; Orhan asks a question of Iskander Pasha. 25. The full moon sets and the new sun rises. Appendix.