Summary

In Chapter 20, Nargis, Imran, and Helen pass time on the island. Nargis thinks about the anti-imperialist rebellion against the British that took place in the 1850s. She hopes that Pakistan will someday be free of violence and oppression. She thinks about her sister Seraphina and her uncle Solomon, who is a Pakistani-born Catholic bishop. She then thinks of an inter-school debate she had attended when she was 14. She was mistakenly introduced as Nargis and as a Christian, which is where she first had the idea of adopting a new identity as a Muslim, thus finding freedom from the oppression suffered by Christians in Pakistan. Seraphina had been unjustly arrested and killed by police officers one day. Nargis moved to Zamana for college. She forged new documents with her new identity.

In Chapter 21, Helen leaves the island to search for her father. There are many...