Bea, an American exchange student, travels to Syria to find the ancient text of a famous Arabic love story that is said to move its best readers to tears. But once in this foreign country, Bea finds that instead of reading Arabic she is entwined in her host family's complicated lives - as they lock the doors and whisper anxiously about impending revolution. Suddenly, instead of the ancient love story she sought, it is her daily witness of a contemporary romance - between a housemaid and policeman - that astonishes her, changes her, and makes her weep.