The place is the home of Abdul Rahman Gafar Khan and his sixteen-year-old granddaughter Hameeda in a town in the 1980s Afghanistan. The soviet occupation is in its late stages and the signs of a more malignant brand of repression are visible. The story begins with Hameeda's thoughts and observations in her little world, and flashbacks to the grandfather's life in the 1940s Bombay. It then brings us to the stirrings of feelings in her young heart for the Pakistani doctor Salim who appears in her life by accident, her faltering attempts to pursue what she barely understands to be love, her success, their brief time of happiness, and their separation. The story continues with Hameeda's determined struggle to find him and secure her destiny. It is a fantastic goal, but her courage is sustained by her tenacity and by her blissful ignorance of the outside world and its evils. The story is also about the grandfather, who joins in Hameeda's struggle as protector and partner. His devotion to his granddaughter and the memories of his own experience at romantic love as a young man in British India are motivators that propel him forward, in defiance of the outside world of which he is indeed so painfully aware. Their difficult mission brings them hardship and tragedy, but they struggle on. So does the Pakistani doctor who launches himself in his own parallel journey to find the girl who captured his heart. In the end, circumstances control their progress as the two lovers press on to defeat their preordained fate.