Three sisters living in Oman, three different characters, three different life choices. Maya lives a secret love, but marries the man chosen by her father.

Asma accepts an arranged marriage without complaint to have children. Hawla refuses all marriage proposals while waiting for her childhood love to return from Canada.

Through the story of three generations from 1880 to the present, the winner of the 2019 Booker International, Jokha Alharthi (born 1978), explores the changes brought about by the modernization of Oman and its transformation from a center of human trafficking to an oil-producing country.

It allows us to "see up close a culture largely unknown in the West - something truly fascinating" (Guardian).