Summary

Part II: The Road From Damascus begins in 1978. Mazna goes to Damascus University to study theater and sees many of her friends shamed by men. Mazna tries to get her parents to let her live alone but knows that her mother does not want to be alone. Mazna says she will move to California but Lulwa says she will never manage that. The war breaks out while Mazna is in college and Syrian troops enter Beirut. During this, the theater director is replaced by Tarek Haddad, and the theater shifts to darker scripts written by those involved in the conflict. Tarek tells her that no one will see her if she goes to America.

The newest play is a wartime Romeo and Juliet written by Tarek starring Mazna and Ralph. Tarek gets the actors to summarize the...