Banquet of Lies is the story of Koussaila or "Nems" (weasel), and the awakening of his unbridled passion for older women. In spite of the fact that his family is Sharif; directly descended from the prophet Muhammad, Koussaila cannot resist seeking forbidden pleasure in the arms of inappropriate women; his aunt, a cleaning lady, a Jewish neighbor and even a Catholic nun.

After his first sexual experience, on the same day as Algeria's 1965 coup d'etat, Koussaila continues on a chaotic path of desire, self-disgust, literature and sex, trying to reconcile the world of Islam (in the pages of the Qur'an) with that of the 'roumis'; Europeans (in the pages of Les Fleurs du Mal and Madame Bovary).