Thessaloniki 1942. Vasilis Tsitsanis, the last great representative of rembetiko music, opens a taste of ouzo, a "ouzeri," in the heart of the city, frequented by lovers of rembetiko as well as policemen, black market brokers, seedsmen, traitors, and secretly rebels. The city, as it had become over the centuries, is living its last days. The German occupiers have planned the deportation of the numerous Sephardic Jewish community, along with young Estrella, who has joined the resistance, and whom the narrator of the novel is in love with. In the pages of Skambardonis' novel, the exciting mosaic of Thessaloniki is revived during one of the most difficult and defining phases of its history. A mosaic of rembetiko, intrigues, love, and betrayals, against the backdrop of a multicultural and multiethnic city poised to change forever.