It is mid-summer in 1891, and Emile Touta is trying to collect his extended family for their annual group portrait on the beach at Alexandria, when he meets and falls in love with Dora.
Helping in her new and adored husband's modest studio, Dora is drawn to the art of photography. She soon masters its fast-developing techniques to eclipse Emile's efforts. The studio's reputation soars; le tout Caire wants to be photographed there, including the Khedive himself, Society Cairo, however, sophisticated but small, is deeply shocked by Dora's behaviour and her marriage begins to show signs of strain. Meanwhile, nationalism is taking root in Egypt, with Khedive Abbas trying to hold his own under British occupation. Dora, in a radical gesture of her own, leaves Cairo for Khartoum, to cover the British campaign in Sudan. Alone in a city where war has not put a stop to the round of diplomatic parties, Dora must finally come to terms with her conflicting identities as talented artist and as a woman of her society.