When her father dies, Touba - a smart and spirited fourteen-year-old - proposes to a middle-aged man to ensure her family's financial security. Her husband is intimidated by Touba's outspoken nature, and they soon agree to divorce. A second marriage to a Qajar prince provides Touba with the tenderness and physical passion she had been lacking, and together they have four children. When the prince takes a second wife, Touba becomes desperately unhappy and divorces him too.
Finding herself alone and without the support of a man for the first time in her life, Touba must weave carpets to support herself and her children. She lives out the rest of her life in her crumbling house as the matriarch of an ever changing household.