Author recreates the bittersweet atmosphere of the last months of the war of independence and the first days of sovereign Algeria. Of Ruins and Glory begins the day after the shooting on rue d'Isly, which left 46 dead and 200 injured.
Lawyer at the Algiers bar, Adam El Hachemi Aït Amar, the narrator, is responsible for defending Emilienne Postorino, a European suspected of being responsible for the shootings. It is for him a case of conscience that does not help.