Osne Seierstans is the only Scandinavian journalist who was in Kabul during the war. When the global community has lost interest in Afghanistan, she remains in the war-torn capital, returning to a daily life filled with dust and uncertainty, hoping to see a new world being born.

She is hosted in the apartment of Sultan Khan, in the center of Kabul, sharing three rooms with his ten-member family. Hiding her Northern features behind the traditional burqa, she moves unnoticed and records the lives and relationships of the people, their emotions and dreams, with as much impartiality as her Western culture allows.

The progressive bookseller envisions a modern new Afghanistan that must now emerge in this part of the world after the twenty-five years of regression brought about by wars and the theocratic rule of the Taliban. However, his vision does not accommodate the members of his large family.

The images of a society numbed by adversity are presented vividly, realistically, and poignantly as the author lifts the veil of a deeply rooted tradition and enters the lives of the ordinary people of Afghanistan.