Experiencing things first-hand

Nora Eldridge is a woman who feels she has not experienced an authentic life for herself. She has done what she was supposed to do, nursing her sick mother while she was dying for four years, but she has not done the things she wanted to do. She describes herself as a ravenous wolf, and she is working on a miniature world which she is reticent about showing to anyone. It is like she is only working for herself, but her work is not integrated with the world, so she is still immature and curious about what will happen when she finally gets out of her own room. In her eyes, the Shahid family represents worldliness and experience, war and history. None of this is personal to her, until she falls in love and lowers the wall that keeps her separate from the world...