Adrift in a hostile sea, Doaa Al Zamel nearly drowns for the second time. Her husband already drowned. Doaa is cold, dehydrated, and so “overcome with grief” (6) that she remains alive only by the need to save the two baby girls she clings to her chest. There is no land in sight, only debris and bloated corpses.

Thirteen years earlier, Doaa had nearly drowned for the first time. A stubborn young girl, Doaa had always refused to learn how to swim. When she was six years old and on vacation with her family, her cousin picked her up and threw her in the water. She floundered, and a relative fished her out and took her to her mother. The six-year-old Doaa “had nothing in the world to fear” (6). She lives with her extended family in Daraa, the largest city in southwest Syria. Though noted for its bounteous harvests, the region will suffer a terrible drought in 2007 which lasts three years, laying the foundations of civil unrest which will uproot Doaa’s family. But in 2001, it is a peaceful city. The recent succession of Bashar al-Assad to the country’s leadership fills people with optimism; they hope that he is less oppressive that his father, Hafez.