Before the Soviet invasion of 1980, Enjeela Ahmadi remembers her home--Kabul, Afghanistan--as peaceful, prosperous, and filled with people from all walks of life. But after her mother, unsettled by growing political unrest, leaves for medical treatment in India, the civil war intensifies, changing young Enjeela's life forever. Amid the rumble of invading Soviet tanks, Enjeela and her family are thrust into chaos and fear when it becomes clear that her mother will not be coming home. Thus begins an epic, reckless, and terrifying five-year journey of escape for Enjeela, her siblings, and their father to reconnect with her mother. In navigating the dangers ahead of them, and in looking back at the wilderness of her homeland, Enjeela discovers the spiritual and physical strength to find hope in the most desperate of circumstances.

Prologue: A tapestry of time and place -- Engagement party -- Abdullah -- Modern woman -- Gravity of darkness -- Prisoner of love -- The broken circle -- Invasion of friends -- Unexpected visitor -- Masood -- This is your lot -- The wolf and the lion -- Kuchi -- A people at war -- Angels along the way -- Days of waiting -- Inhale and exhale -- Karachi to Dhaka -- Inshallah -- Garden of dreams -- The road home -- Most wanted child -- New beginnings -- Moving forward.