Rio de Janeiro: City of Carnival, master of deception, chance, and masquerade. Özgür, an introverted young Turkish academic, finds herself unable to detach from the city that is as fascinating as it is threatening. The young woman has strayed far from the traditional role assigned to women in Turkish society. Rather than a tourist, Özgür guides the reader through the labyrinths of this metropolis as a migrant who embraces the initially foreign as familiar and her own. At the same time, the city serves as an inspiration for her writing and the creation of her fictional alter ego, Ö. The two narrative levels, intricately intertwined in various ways, reflect upon each other. The nuanced portrayal of the people, who merge in love and suffering in often deadly ways, is breathtaking.