Content Warning: The text includes sexual assault, rape, and pregnancy loss.

Ellie, 38, lives in New York City and works in a retail store selling expensive perfume. The scent of tobacco makes her recall a long-ago night in Iran “when an act of betrayal changed the entire course of my friendship with Homa and both of our lives” (3). She still feels guilty and believes her mother’s old superstition about the curse of the evil eye. She thinks about a letter from Homa telling Ellie how lucky she is to live in America with her professor husband, Mehrdad, and to escape Iran with its slide back to medieval times. Ellie has been estranged from Homa for 17 years, but Homa now asks Ellie to contact her, saying it’s urgent. After her shift, Ellie buys a slice of pizza, then gives it to a homeless woman sitting outside the subway station. As she takes the train home, Ellie becomes lost in memories.

Ellie’s father passes away in the spring of 1950, just after Ellie turns seven. They can no longer afford to remain in their large house, but Ellie’s mother claims she is descended from royalty, and she cannot demean herself by working.