A woman named Amal am-Ghamrawi looks through a trunk of possessions that once belonged to a Victorian woman, Anna. She finds a diary, a painted portrait, shawls, letters, jewelry, and other keepsakes. It transpires that Anna has been brought this trunk by an American woman named Isabel Parkman, who met Amal’s brother in New York. Isabel is doing a research project about the turn of the 21st century and has arrived in Egypt to interview Amal and bring her this trunk of heirlooms that belonged to Isabel’s great-grandmother. There seems to be some mysterious connection between Isabel’s and Amal’s family.

Amal is at first skeptical about Isabel, fearing that she’ll be an American of the noisy variety. She instead finds her quiet and friendly and is moved by the contents of the trunk—though she suggests it might be a Pandora’s box: “Oh, I hope not,” says Isabel (7).

In what seems to be another diary entry labeled “Cairo, April 1997,” the narration moves into the first person: Amal is now speaking to us (10). She recounts a dream of her grandparents’ beautiful house, and of meeting an uncle whom she never met in life.