Ierapetra, or His Sister's Keeper, is a man's attempt to overcome grief and guilt through storytelling. Reiner, now retired in the Berkshires, reminisces about the times he spent with his younger sister, Monika, who succumbed to cancer in her early fifties. His memory centers around traumatic events during a trip he took with her to Crete in the 1960s, which left Monika with emotional scars and Reiner with a perpetual feeling of insufficiency and guilt.

Between glimpses of its ancient cultures, Crete comes to life in its spectacular atmospheric light. Its own brand of Greek island music and the vitality of its people are shaped by European echoes of the Vietnam protests and hippies flooding pristine beaches. The siblings' ensuing trajectories take them through Europe against the background of Chernobyl, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the completion of the Chunnel and the advent of the Internet. In the final chapters, set in Barcelona after his sister's demise, the growing tension between the truth and Reiner's revisionist history leads to a breaking point.