Both born in Afghanistan a generation apart and with very different ideas about love and family, Mariam and Laila are brought together by war, by loss and by fate. As they endure the ever escalating dangers around them -- in their home as well as in the streets of Kabul -- they form a bond that will ultimately alter the course of their lives and the lives of the next generation. With heart-wrenching power and suspense, Hosseini shows how a woman's love for her family can move her to shocking and heroic acts of self-sacrifice, and that in the end it is love, or even the memory of love, that is often the key to survival.