As Europe prepares for the din of battle in The Great War, a British cartographer roams the silent dunes of The Empty Quarter in the Arabian Desert. Following a violent sandstorm which leaves him lost and close to death, Peter Carter is rescued by a tribe of Bedouin nomads. While in their care he befriends chief Ghalib, but falls in love with his daughter, Farra. Truth, trust and friendship are put to the test in a brutal form of traditional lie detection...