In 1972, disenchanted about the dreary conventions of English life, 25-year-old Julia heads for Morocco with her daughters, six-year-old Lucy and precocious eight-year-old Bea.
David, now an old man, is still king of Israel. Among his sons, the ambitious Adonijah and the clever Solomon, fierce rivals, since both are prospective heirs to the throne and only one can be.
A woman's ex-husband, who is the son of an Arab chieftain, kidnaps their teenage son and brings him back to Morocco, where the boy is to be made the leader of the tribe. The child's mother hires a mercenary to get her son and bring him back to her.