This story is told to us through the perspective of five characters.
 At the edge of the desert, lives Akbar, devout head of the family and respected by all. Unbeknownst to his wife, Akbar exchanges his stillborn son with the baby conceived by the beautiful gypsy Zoleikha, his brother's mistress. He will call the child Khodadad, “gift from God”. Fifteen years later, Khodadad fled from his native village with his cousin Reza but his dreams were quickly shattered. Donya was a pampered and happy little girl, before her family suffered setbacks and decided to sell her. As a teenager, she falls in love with her boss's son and, as a punishment, finds herself married to a man, Reza, her senior by ten, whom she is unable to love. Their daughter, Mahtab, will make him find a form of happiness.
 Mahtab is pampered by her parents and adored by her father. She meets a law student, Kianush, with whom she has a beautiful love affair. But the Revolutionary Guards watch them, and tragedy befalls them. Laleh dreams on her hospital bed. Close to death, she sees her whole life again. Laleh dedicated his life to a man, Reza. This one, who undoubtedly loved her, nevertheless chose, in the end, his wife and especially his daughter.
 Hamid Ziarati affirms in this vast romantic fresco his talent as a novelist, weaving with consummate knowledge, a naturalness and a luminous humanism, the destinies of his characters. The strength of the book also lies in what it tells us about the condition of women in Iran and the cruelty of a regime that disregards the most basic human rights.

 Born Tehran in 1966, Hamid Ziarati left Iran in 1981 to escape military service. He settled in Italy. A little later, his parents also fled Iran. He was educated at the Polytechnic of Turin, where he obtained his engineering degree. When his first child was born, he felt the need to write (in Italian) a book in memory of his native country: Salam, Maman (2006), his first novel.