Summary

Souad and Karam have come to Beirut for the summer and are staying in Riham and Karam’s apartments respectively. Alia has come to help them settle in and spends much of her time berating the children for their Americanisms. Souad and her children Manar and Zain meet Budur and Linah in their apartment before going out for the day. Alia comments on how revealing Souad’s dress is and Budur comments that it is conservative compared with what the Lebanese women in Beirut wear; their distaste for the Lebanese is the only thing that unites Budur and Alia. They all go out to the mall, Souad noticing how many contrasting billboards there are. She sees similarities between the glassy eyes in the posters to the eyes of the hijackers that attacked the World Trade Centre. She remembers how traumatic the event...