The first volume of a gripping trilogy set in Saudi Arabia, this is a story of love, loyalty, intrigue, suspicion, and intolerance Major-General Farhan Al-Balawi is a loyal soldier in the Saudi Arabian army who dotes on his beloved daughter, Maryam, his pride in her learning and independent spirit sharpened by the death of his elder son and his estrangement from the younger who has opted to pursue a hedonistic western lifestyle in the U. S. Despite the love she shares with her family, the pride she takes in her Arabian heritage, and her loyalty to Islam, Maryam yearns to travel and to continue her education in a European university. When Farhan announces that Maryam is to marry the son of a man who once saved his life, as the fulfillment of a promise made before she was born, Maryam endeavors to stifle her bitter disappointment and honor her father's wishes. Then she meets Joe, an American dentist--and a Jew. As Joe and Maryam pursue an increasingly intimate clandestine relationship they dare to dream of freedom and of a life together. But Joe is gradually drawing the attention of the Muttawa, the feared religious police, and when Maryam realizes that she is pregnant, it is then that her trials really begin.