Part I, Chapters 1-3 Summary

In chapter one, "My Awakening," the narrator, thirteen-year-old Jahanara, introduces herself and her brothers and sisters to the reader as the princes and princesses play in the luxurious harem at the Red Fort of Agra. Jahanara toys with a cricket she has captured in a jeweled cage and talks to her older brother Dara until her younger brother, Aurangzeb, interrupts them. Aurangzeb taunts Jahanara, and when their bickering threatens to become a brawl, it draws the attention of their mother, Arjumand, the legendary beauty and wife of the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan.

To stop the quarrel, Arjumand takes the children to see their father as he conducts the business of the Empire in the Diwan-i Am, or audience hall of the Fort. Shah Jahan acknowledges the arrival of his family, particularly his eldest son and heir, Dara...