Every night, Marc Laurent, an American taken hostage in Pakistan, is bound and blindfolded. And every night, a woman he knows only as Josephine visits his cell. At first, her questions are mercenary: is there anyone back home who will pay the ransom? But when Marc can offer no name, she asks him a question about his daughter that is even more terrifying than his captivity. And so begins a strange yet increasingly comforting ritual, in which Josephine and Marc tell each other stories. As these stories build upon one another, a father and daughter start to find their way toward understanding each other again.

Drawing on stories as old as those of Scheherazade and as recent as the current unrest in the Middle East, Pittsburgh writing teacher Daniel Lowe has created a stunning, boundless novel that reminds us why we need stories, and ultimately, why we need each other.