Prologue and Chapter 1 Summary and Analysis

Prologue: The narrator (Princess Sultana) is looking at an old photograph of her uncle and present king of Saudi Arabia, Fahd ibn Abdul Aziz. The older man in the photograph is stern, regal, imposing, which is in contrast to how Sultana remembers him in his youth, as a handsome warrior. She believes being a king has weighed heavily on him. Being the king of Saudi Arabia means trying to rule over four distinct groups of citizens: religious fundamentalists; the progressive middle-class; Bedouin tribes; and wealthy royal families.

Sultana recalls the forgotten group of people, the women of Saudi Arabia, who have little rights in the country and are treated as second-class citizens. She does not blame the king for this, because in her country the king alone could not make women equal. The king is in fact...