Dutiful Daughters

Life in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, has always been peaceful, pleasant, and easy for young Noorah. Surrounded by her father, three mothers, multiple brothers, two sisters, and beloved grandmother, she is content. But all that starts to change as she nears graduation from the girls' school she attends. What awaits her beyond the walls of academia is the big M-word--marriage. And Noorah feels far from ready to leave home and start a family of her own.

But Noorah is not the only one in her family facing difficult, life-altering changes. Her older sister, Amal, as a recent widow, is paralyzed by the fear that her two young children will be pulled from her home and taken to her late husband's family, as the law commands. She daily lives in fear while still struggling to overcome her husband's death. Will she be able to keep her children?

At the same time, one of Noorahs three mothers, Mother the Beauty, is pregnant with a child she does not want. She is convinced it is a girl, and she wants only to give her husband sons. As the third and youngest wife, she feels she is always living in the shadows of the first two wives. If only she could give her husband more sons, then certainly she would be the most loved wife...

As talk of Noorah's marriage continues and a potential groom is identified, Noorah grows more and more anxious. How can she leave the childhood home she loves so much? How can she be expected to move so quickly from being a child to having children of her own? Is she really as ready as everyone says she is?