Chapters 1-2 Summary and Analysis

Sultana was the daughter of a prince of Saudi Arabia. Sultana's father was the son of Abdul Aziz, the first king of Saudi Arabia and the brother of the current king. Sultana grew up in the palace belonging to her father and lived in by her ten siblings and her mother, the prince's first of four wives. Sultana, who was not allowed by Saudi culture to write a book of her own, told her story to the author of this book who presented it to readers in the first person point of view as though Sultana wrote it.

In the section "Childhood," Sultana refused to give an apple the cook had given her to her brother. As they fought, Omar, their father's driver, separated them and reported the fight to their father. As a consequence of Sultana's refusal to...