The Sheltering Sky

Three Americans from New York—Port Moresby, Kit, and their friend George Tunner—arrive in Oran, French Algeria, in 1947. They plan to travel deep into the Sahara, with Tunner hoping to return home soon while Port and Kit intend to stay for a year or two. Kit emphasizes that they are travelers, not tourists, setting the tone for their expedition.

While awaiting transport to a hotel, the group meets English travelers Mrs. Lyle and her adult son Eric. Eric is constantly short of money and pleads for credit and loans, foreshadowing financial strains and friction. The Lyles’ presence introduces new companionship for the journey.

Port, rebuffed by Kit during a city walk, is guided into a Berber encampment where he encounters a prostitute. They have sex, but she tries to steal his wallet, and Port is quickly chased from the camp by a mob. The episode strains Port and Kit’s fragile relationship and foreshadows the trouble ahead.

The next morning Tunner arrives at Kit’s room to take her shopping. To hide Port’s late night, Kit peels back the covers to imply Port slept there. Port soon appears, and he misreads the scene, assuming Tunner spent the night with Kit.

Port and Kit encounter the Lyles again and are offered a ride toward Boucif, though there is no room for Tunner. Port accepts the ride with the Lyles while Kit and Tunner take the train, separating the trio for the next leg of the journey.

During the journey, Tunner and Kit grow closer, sharing champagne and companionship. They wake up the next morning in Kit’s hotel room after a drunken tryst, complicating Port’s suspicions about Kit and Tunner.

Sensing trouble with Kit’s relationship to Tunner, Port arranges for Eric Lyle to provide transportation to Messad for Tunner. Eric agrees but also steals Port’s passport in the process, removing Port’s ability to travel freely.

In Bounoura, Port discovers his passport is missing. Local officials tell him the passport can be recovered in Messad, but Port chooses to press on by bus to El Ga’a with Kit to avoid meeting Tunner. On the journey, Port contracts typhoid fever, setting up a desperate struggle for survival.

The hotel refuses to accommodate them due to fear of infection. Kit carries Port to a French Foreign Legion post, but there is no doctor and she must nurse him herself. Port’s condition deteriorates, and he dies beside Kit in their room.

With Port dead, Kit leaves his body and wanders alone into the vast Sahara in search of safety and a way forward. The loneliness and isolation of the desert deepen her resolve to survive and continue.

A Tuareg caravan led by Belqassim encounters Kit. He disguises her as a boy and locks her in a guest house, beginning a period of captivity that complicates her hope for freedom.

Kit, though held captive, initially welcomes Belqassim’s advances and an affair begins. Her stay becomes painful as Belqassim’s wives discover her and order her to leave the household, intensifying her disorientation.

Kit is found, mute and nearly insane, by staff at a Catholic mission hospital run by the American embassy. Tunner has learned Port’s grave exists, prompting an embassy-led search that culminates in Kit being transported to Tangier for authorities to handle the case.

Kit is brought to Tangier where Tunner is waiting for her arrival. The reunion is complicated by the emotional scars of the journey and the entanglements that have developed along the way.

After arriving in Tangier, Kit goes to the hotel but then bolts into the city, avoiding a direct meeting with Tunner. The final image centers on her desperation and determination to evade a concluded confrontation and to continue her own path.