The daughter of a prominent family, ten-year-old Sitara Zamani lives in privilege in Afghanistan's thriving, cosmopolitan capital. But in 1978, a coup shatters her world. When the president and Sitara's entire family are assassinated, only she survives. Smuggled from the scene by a soldier named Shair, Sitara finds her way to the home of a female American diplomat, who adopts her. In the United States, Sitara takes on a new name -- Aryana Shephard -- and eventually becomes a renowned surgeon. A survivor, Aryana has refused to look back, choosing instead to bury the devastating loss she endured. But thirty years after that fatal night in Kabul, her world is rocked again when an elderly patient appears in her exam room. It is Shair, the soldier who saved her. Seeing him awakens Aryana's desire for answers -- and, perhaps, revenge. Realizing that she cannot go on without learning the truth, Aryana embarks on a quest that takes her back to Kabul -- now a battleground between the corrupt government and the fundamentalist Taliban -- and through shadowy memories of the world she loved and lost. -- From back cover.