When Isra, a young Palestinian girl, finds herself married and leaving the only home she has ever known, she hopes that she will find love with her new husband and some joy in America where women have so many more opportunities than in her homeland. What she gets is a basement apartment in the home of her new in-laws in an area of Brooklyn populated by other Palestinians who have fled their country and a husband who is rarely home and pays little attention to her when he is unless it's to beat her. The tenuous relationship she has with her mother-in-law deteriorates as Isra gives birth to one girl after another instead of the son that the family expects. Isra's tragic story is told not only through her, but also Fareeda, the mother-in-law, and Isra's oldest daughter, Deya, who now finds herself facing an arranged marriage of her own. This heart-wrenching story focuses on things many of us take for granted and exposes a culture very different from our own where the women must endure whatever hardships are thrust upon them with silence and resignation.