Nesrin, a shy Circassian beauty, is rushed into a loveless arranged marriage with a powerful landowner's son. By twenty-five, she is the mother of two beloved children, but is forced from her home by constant abuse at the hands of her cruel and callous husband. Her children, Jemil and Lebriz, are soon given away by their father to the Sultan's emissaries, to be taken to Istanbul to serve in the palace. Jemil is sent to a military household, where he's taught to forget his past in favor of a glorious future as a warrior, while beautiful Lebriz is sent to the gleaming Yildiz Palace to be groomed as a servant in the Sultan's harem. Set during the final days of the Ottoman Empire, LEBRIZ tells the story of Nesrin's desperate search for her children, and of Jemil and Lebriz's tenacity to survive. Based on real events, this powerful novel pulls back the curtain on the secret and cloistered world of the Sultan's harem, and proves that the bonds between mother and child may be tested, but never broken.