Heirs to the Past

Seigneur Haj Ferdi is a very wealthy and powerful aristocratic property-owner in the Moroccan capital city of Casablanca. The aristocrat has grown his family inheritance into a very big fortune. He is a generous benefactor. The entire household fears and obeys the Seigneur. Haj Ferdi is diagnosed to be suffering from the terminal disease cirrhosis of the liver. He leaves his family and stays away on an island in his tomato plantation for five years. After the five years, he returns home; and is found dead two days later in Drissʹs room. All the sons come around for Hajʹs funeral ceremony. Driss, the narrator of the story, returns after sixteen years from France, leaving his French wife, his mother-in-law and son behind. The mourning lasts for ten days in Haj Ferdiʹs family, during which all the sons stay and sparsely feed together with their lonely mother. Then, it comes to sharing Haj Ferdiʹs inheritance.