These four novellas are unified by the characters Maqroll and the Bashur family, and by the narrator, identified only as "I" but presumably Mutis himself. In Amirbar Maqroll finds gold in an abandoned mine in the South American jungle and is nearly buried alive by a woman companion.

The Tramp Steamer's Last Port of Call is the haunting love story of Warda, twenty-three, the rebellious younger sister of Abdul Bashur, and Jon Iturri, the fiftyish captain of the tramp steamer Alcion, which lasts until the ship is wrecked and destroyed in Venezuela. All his life Abdul Bashur, a Lebanese shipowner, dreamed of finding the perfect ship, and the novella named for him chronicles his life and friendship with Maqroll and their shady schemes, from selling rare Oriental rugs to transporting Muslim pilgrims from the former Yugoslavia to Mecca.

Triptych tells of three incidents in the Maqroll cycle - the suicide of an old Norwegian friend, Maqroll's encounters with a famous painter, and the culminating, poignant story of Maqroll's year with four-year-old Jamil, the son of Abdul Bashur, recently killed in a plane crash.