Prologue - Chapter 2: If You Would Know, How the Story Begins, The Tale of the Girl Who Wished to Be What She Is Not Summary

In the Prologue, Shahrazad speaks directly to the readers, enticing them with a new perspective on an ancient tale: she offers to tell her story herself. Rather than focusing on the stories the storyteller (Shahrazad) told in "One Thousand and One Nights," Shahrazad will describe how she came to be in the position to tell them and how her relationship with Shahrayar developed. She speaks from old age, from the end of the story, seeing its full arc.

Shahrazad's father, a vizier, travels to a distant land in India where he meets and falls in love with...