One summer day in 2021, Salman Baldi decided to return to Damascus, forty years, two months, and seventeen days after he left Syria in 1970 with a forged passport. It took him another six months to ensure there would be no arrest warrant against him when he returned. He had read stories of expatriates whose longing and desire to return to their homeland, or the tricks and deceptions of the intelligence services, led to their arrest as soon as they set foot outside the plane door. Salman waited until he was absolutely sure that everything was fine, even though doing so from Rome was extremely difficult.

Salman had forgotten most of his eventful past in Syria and now lived happily in Rome with his family. But he never forgot the reason that made him flee his country: the firing of the fire, the policeman who was seriously injured, the defeat of his group and his escape, and the fear of arrest that he escaped at the last moment. All these memories haunted him in his nightmares, almost every night during his first years in exile, but they began to fade and disappear with time.