On breaking a piece from her mother Nana’s heirloom Chinese tea set, 5-year-old Mariam is called a harami, a word meaning bastard, that describes her illegitimacy (3): “She understood then what Nana meant, that a harami is “an unwanted thing […] an illegitimate person who would never have legitimate claim to the things other people had, things such as love, family, home, acceptance” (4).

Her father, Jalil, on the other hand, who visits her on Thursdays, calls her “his little flower,” makes her feel wanted and tells her stories about the Queen Gauhar Shad and the poet Jami. Mariam listens with “enchantment,” admiring Jalil for his worldly knowledge (5). Nana is scornful, saying that Mariam is not to believe a word Jalil says because he cast them both out of his “‘big fancy house like [they] were nothing to him’” (5). Mariam, however, likes being around Jalil, who makes her feel deserving, even if she has to share him with his three wives and ten legitimate children.

Mariam lives near Herat, her father’s town, but has never been to visit the place where he owns a cinema, three carpet stores and a clothing shop.