Amar arrives at Hadia's wedding and nervously greets guests he has not seen in three years.

Layla makes Rafiq promise he will not approach Amar during the wedding ceremony.

Hadia tells Amar that choosing her own husband disappointed their parents just as much as his choices did.

Abbas Ali is killed in a car accident, devastating both Amar and Hadia.

Amar and Amira secretly meet in the local library, with Amar planning to propose once he earns a college degree.

Amar is beaten up in the school locker room after the 9/11 attacks and called a terrorist.

Amira breaks up with Amar after her mother discovers their secret relationship.

Hadia secretly finds pills in Amar's pockets during a visit home and flushes them down the toilet.

Amar shoves Rafiq into a picture frame during a confrontation at home, shattering it.

Amar leaves home the same night as his violent fight with his father.

Amira privately tells Amar at the wedding that Layla was the one who informed Seema about their relationship.

Amar confronts Layla and calls her a hypocrite for sabotaging his relationship while allowing Hadia to choose freely.

Rafiq finds Amar drunk and crying in the hotel courtyard, embraces him, and tells him he will wait as long as needed in the next life.

Hadia reveals to Rafiq that his MRI has found an operable brain tumor requiring surgery.

Rafiq asks his grandson Abbas to memorize and deliver a message of reconciliation to his mysterious phone caller.

Amar returns after three years of silence to attend his sister Hadia's wedding, where old wounds quickly resurface despite his hopes for acceptance. Flashbacks reveal that the death of his friend Abbas and the forced end of his relationship with Amira drove Amar into addiction and ultimately out of his home after a violent confrontation with his father Rafiq. At the wedding, Amar learns the devastating truth that his own mother arranged Amira's breakup with him, and he responds with rage and drink rather than seeking resolution. Rafiq finds his son drunk in the courtyard and offers quiet words of love, yet still lies to Layla that he never located Amar at all. Years later, Rafiq faces a brain tumor and, sensing time is short, arranges for a message of forgiveness to reach Amar through an unexpected messenger.

The core story of Amar's estrangement and his family's fractured love.

Layla confides to her sister that her parents have arranged a marriage proposal from a man named Rafiq in America.

Young Amar spots Abbas's sister Amira at a family friend's party and develops an intense crush on her.

Amar stays home sick on spelling test day, studies with Hadia, and then cheats anyway to earn a perfect score.

Abbas tells Hadia she looks like the sun at her birthday party, and she resolves to wear a hijab.

Amar comforts Amira with kind words about her brother Abbas at the funeral gathering.

Amar tells Amira his high school graduation news before telling anyone else in his family.

Hadia learns she has been accepted into a medical program while still carrying quiet feelings for Abbas.

Amar and his sisters learn at an ice cream shop that their maternal grandmother has died.

Amar refuses to speak to anyone except Hadia during the Muharram visit, revealing his deep withdrawal and misery.

Rafiq calls Hadia at school and begs her to return home because Amar's addiction has grown dangerously worse.

A watch Rafiq had given Hadia as a keepsake disappears from the family home, with strong implication that Amar sold it.

Huda and Hadia track down Amar at the hotel bar so he can meet Tariq at the wedding.

Amar meets an old wedding guest who knew his paternal grandfather and grieved deeply alongside Rafiq at his death.

Huda visits Rafiq in the hospital the day before his surgery and Rafiq reflects privately on his failures as a father.

After his surgery, Rafiq buys his grandson Abbas expensive shoes, haunted by guilt over denying Amar the same gift.

Beginning with Layla's own arranged marriage and moving through the childhoods of all three siblings, these events trace the quieter forces that shaped the family's dynamics and deepest loyalties. Amar's early crush on Amira, his tendency to cheat and take shortcuts, and his unconditional bond with Abbas all establish the roots of his later grief and unraveling. The siblings navigate loss and ambition in parallel — Hadia's acceptance into medical school, Amar's growing isolation — as ordinary family moments reveal the love, resentment, and frustration running beneath every interaction. By the time Rafiq calls Hadia home to confront Amar's worsening addiction, the accumulated weight of small failures has become enormous. Even after Rafiq's surgery, he expresses his regrets through gesture, buying his grandson the shoes he once denied his son, showing how profoundly the past continues to haunt him.

The smaller moments that shaped Amar, Hadia, and their family.

Amar runs into Amira Ali at the wedding buffet table, exchanging tense greetings for the first time in years.

The family sits outside together for a Fourth of July fireworks display after Amar's persistent requests to his father.

Hadia is pulled out of class to the school nurse's office, where she finds Amar pretending to be ill.

Hadia spitefully tells her father that Amar cheated on his spelling test, costing Amar the promised reward and Rafiq's pride.

Amar insists on trying to fast for Ramadan because his admired friend Abbas intends to do the same.

Hadia sulks in the driveway after her father forbids her from attending a party; Amar joins her and they watch planes together.

Rafiq tells his wife and daughters not to wear their hijabs after 9/11, while Amar begs his father to shave his beard.

Before Amar leaves home after the fight, Hadia makes him promise to contact her if he ever needs help.

Layla discovers Amar's hidden box of letters and photographs from Amira and goes directly to Seema with the evidence.

Amira tells Amar at the wedding that she is now engaged to another man and preparing to attend graduate school.

Huda breaks up Amar's confrontation with Layla and comforts him; Amar then leaves the hotel to buy more alcohol.

Rafiq returns to the wedding reception and tells Layla he could not find Amar anywhere, lying to shield her from further pain.

Hadia and Huda slip away to open Amar's wedding gift and discover it contains the grandfather's watch Amar had stolen.

Layla scolds Rafiq for not eating or taking his medication, fearing he has quietly accepted his own death.

Hadia tells Rafiq that grandson Abbas has been receiving occasional phone calls from a mystery caller she suspects is Amar.

This pool traces the pivotal turning points in the story — moments where a single decision or discovery altered the course of a life. From childhood scenes of sibling rivalry, faith, and solidarity to the community-wide trauma following 9/11, these events reveal how Amar and his family were shaped by what they chose to say and withhold from each other. The moment Layla uncovers Amar's correspondence with Amira and takes it to Seema is the hidden cause of years of destruction, only revealed to Amar — and the reader — much later at the wedding. The wedding night then delivers revelation after revelation: Amira's engagement, Amar's drunken confrontation with Layla, Rafiq's compassionate lie, and the discovery of the stolen watch hidden inside a wedding gift. The pool closes with Hadia's disclosure about the mystery phone calls, cracking open a final and fragile possibility for reconciliation.