Two angels arrive in Sodom, and Lot shows them hospitality. However, the men of the city gather around Lot's house and demand that he give them the two guests so they could rape them. In response, Lot offers the mob his two daughters instead, noting that they are virgins (verse 19:8). The mob refuses Lot's offer, but the angels strike them with blindness, and then warn Lot to leave the city before it is destroyed.

Lot's wife turns into a pillar of salt, but Lot and his daughters escape to Zoar, and end up living in a cave in the mountains. Lot's daughters realise that they are not going to find men to have sex with them, so that they may have children and continue the family line. They get their father drunk, and over two consecutive nights have sex with him without his knowledge. They both get pregnant.