Inspired by an epitaph discovered in the graveyard of her native town of Berd, Narine Abgaryan crafts an epic and deeply moving historical saga of love, exile, survival, and resilience against the violent upheavals of the twentieth century.

The story begins in the early 1900s when the life of fifteen-year-old Sofia, the cherished daughter of a prosperous Armenian family, is shattered by her mother’s sudden death. In her grief, Sofia finds comfort and first love in David, her tutor and her older brother’s closest friend. Fearing her father’s disapproval, the young lovers flee to marry in secret – but tragedy strikes when Sofia’s brother intercepts them and accidentally kills David, setting in motion a devastating chain of events that tears Sofia away from everything she has known.

Driven far from home, Sofia is swept across collapsing empires and war-ravaged lands. From a remote mountain village inhabited by exiled Oghuz Turks, to the cosmopolitan streets of tsarist Baku, to the harem of a powerful Turkmen bai during the rise of Soviet rule, Sofia endures kidnapping, captivity, loss, and betrayal. Her exceptional beauty becomes both a blessing and a curse, exposing her to dangers even as her spirit refuses to break.

After a daring escape with her infant son, Sofia journeys through the chaos of revolution and war into Manchuria, where she rebuilds her life from nothing, transforming herself from a humble washwoman into the owner of a drapery shop in a land shaped by Japanese occupation and political turmoil. Yet despite the distance, the years, and the suffering she endures, Sofia never abandons her longing for home and peace.

Sweeping across continents and decades, this unforgettable novel is both an evocative portrait of a century marked by war and displacement and an intimate story of one woman’s resilience.