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In the mid-1970s, in a country on the cusp of revolution, a vibrant young woman named Sarah attends a party with her brother. There she rebuffs the advances of a colonel who had been a business associate of her late father. But when Sarah returns home, she learns that her brother has arranged for her to marry the colonel in exchange for having his debts forgiven. Distraught, Sarah attempts to kill herself. When this fails, she makes repeated attempts to file for divorce.
Sarah develops a secret emotional bond with the colonel's young son, who encourages her to leave him, and is crushed when he announces his marriage to another woman. Sarah's troubles increase when she learns that she's pregnant, and it's rumored that the baby belongs to the colonel's son. Sarah informs the colonel of this and offers to let him have the child in exchange for her freedom, but he refuses, threatening to poison her if she attempts to escape the marriage. At a party, she meets and flirts with a young man. Shortly thereafter, he invites himself up to her room and forces himself on her.
Barghi's narrative unfolds with the simplicity and charm of a fairy-tale, gliding with little digression from one event to the next. The bulk of the story hinges on Sarah's attempts to free herself from the odious colonel, a struggle that can't fail to absorb the reader's interest. In the process, she undergoes a transformation from a naïve, coquettish ingénue to a jaded, broken woman. Barghi depicts this transformation with skill and economy. More troubling is a sexual encounter midway through the book in which Sarah responds positively to an apparent sexual assault. However, the book succeeds as a whole because its heroine is so compelling.