Summary

Souad awakens from a restless sleep. We are told that everyone in the household has been sleeping badly since “the invasion” (157) and that Souad is a messy sleeper. She tries to go back to sleep but is unable. She is thinking about the invasion, Elie, and a phone call from her mother. After much arguing and pleading, Alia eventually allows Souad to attend art school in Paris. She stays with Khalto Mimi who has moved there. Lara and Mira both lead sophisticated, fashionable lives, and Souad feels as though she is plain compared to them. She has come to Paris in order to spend the summer with Elie, before they go their separate ways. Souad envies the relationship the girls have with Mimi as she knows that her relationship with Alia is strained. She watches TV with her cousins, aunt and uncle...