WINNER OF THE VIRGINIA PRIZE FOR FICTION. Wanting to be independent and free, Layla resists her mother's relentless attempts to find her a suitable husband. Instead, she embarks on an illicit affair with her art teacher, Keyvan, and they tentatively imagine a future together. But the sudden death of her uncle, an outspoken journalist, raises many unanswered questions and when Layla's cousin, who is visiting from America, is arrested by the morality police, the komiteh, Layla's plans for the future begin to unravel. Beneath the polished surface of upper-class Iranian life lies pain, fear and dark, dark secrets.