Summary

Part Four takes place in 1952 when Laila returned to Ashaina to see her childhood home before it was sold. She observed that the property was overgrown and strangers were living in the rooms that had once been occupied by her family and been the setting of her coming of age. A servant who had worked for her family allowed her into the house and she asked him to leave her while she wandered the rooms.

In Chapter 2, the narrator recounted the political shifts that led to her family’s disillusionment. Her cousins moved away, and Aunt Saira had attempted to keep the house, despite dwindling means. After “Saleem had gone to Pakistan his share in all the property was taken away” and the family was forced to split ownership of the estates (278). Aunt Saira struggled to reconcile the loss of the ancestral home...