Seeing his bed, he assumes that Tunner spent the night with Kit. As Kit and Tunner are preparing to leave, a disheveled Port arrives. Not wanting Tunner to know that Port stayed out all night, she removes the covers from his bed to make it appear that he slept there. The next morning Tunner arrives at Kit's room to take her shopping. Port quickly leaves and is chased from the camp by a mob. The two have sex and the prostitute attempts to steal his wallet.

During his walk he meets a pimp who introduces him to a prostitute in a Berber encampment. After she refuses and rebuffs his romantic advances, Port angrily leaves. Port invites Kit to accompany him for a walk in the city. After arriving at the hotel, they sit in the hotel bar and are observed by an older man sitting alone at a table. Eric's mother keeps him constantly short of money so he is always asking for credit and loans. Lyle, a travel writer, and Eric, her adult son. While awaiting transport to a hotel, the group meets a pair of English travelers, Mrs. We're travelers.' While Tunner plans to return home in a few weeks, Port and Kit plan on staying for a year or two. Tunner observes, 'We're probably the first tourists they've had since the war,' to which Kit replies 'We're not tourists.

Port Moresby and his wife Kit are accompanied by their friend George Tunner on a trip that will take them deep into the Sahara Desert. Three Americans from New York arrive in Oran, French Algeria in 1947. The story culminates with the man falling severely ill in a very remote area of the Sahara desert, from where the events turn catastrophic. The film is based on the 1949 novel of the same name by Paul Bowles (who appears in a cameo role) about a couple who journey to North Africa in the hopes of rekindling their marriage but soon fall prey to the dangers that surround them. The Sheltering Sky is a 1990 British-Italian drama film directed by Bernardo Bertolucci starring Debra Winger and John Malkovich.

The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles