This book begins the saga of a family in crisis. It isn’t a single event, but a slow evolution brought on by the irrepressible challenge of modernity. Young people want to shake off old traditions…Adults misbehave in secret…And in Cairo, the home becomes a place where secrets are kept hidden from those within while it protects secrets on the outside. It is an allegory of the Egyptian soul in the age of independence. The trilogy metes these secrets out one by one, until the walls that “protect” inside and outside begin to crumble. People must make new lives and develop new self-identities.