It Was an Evening tells the story of Meliha, a young woman driven by the naïve daydreams of youth, a lack of life experience, and the absence of a strong family foundation. Yearning for a wealthy and glamorous life she knows little about, Meliha seizes the chance to change her destiny when her relative, Kamil, returns to Izmit from the Caucasian front. Leaving behind her sick father and a mother unable to adapt to their social environment, she secretly runs away to Istanbul with Kamil one night. They eventually marry, but Meliha soon finds herself entangled in a web of events she never anticipated, paying a heavy price for her passions by losing nearly all her values.

Kamil, a notorious playboy of the Şişli district, does not abandon his old habits after marriage and instead introduces his wife to a life of debauchery. While Meliha struggles to fend off the countless women surrounding her husband, a new crisis emerges: Kamil’s French wife from before the war arrives with their child. Caught between these women and his own inner turmoil, Kamil seeks escape by joining the ongoing War of Independence, only to find himself in a true hell in Anatolia. The novel vividly portrays the tragic consequences of moral decay and the pursuit of superficial desires.