Summary

The narrator, a Syrian refugee, addresses his young son, Marwan. The narrator begins by recalling the days of his own boyhood. When he was a child, he and his family lived on a farm near the Syrian city of Homs. His father was a farmer, and they all lived in a farmhouse. The narrator and his brothers often spent leisure time on the roof of the house. The illustrations show the beauty and tranquility of life there, as the surroundings were verdant and picturesque. The narrator and his brothers would sometimes sleep on a mattress on the roof of the house, and in the morning, they would awake to the beautiful vista and the peaceful sounds of morning.

The narrator then recalls a time from when his son, Marwan, was a toddler. The narrator and his wife took Marwan to see the countryside...