Fatima and Samir are born on the same day; Mother insists both births receive equal celebration, defying the tradition favoring boys.

Fatima and Samir accidentally reveal to the men that the harem's women possess a secret key to the radio cabinet.

Mother tells Fatima the story of Scheherazade, explaining that Fatima's chances of happiness depend entirely on her skill with words.

French forces attack the Medina after the Moroccan king requests independence; Fatima and Samir witness blood-soaked corpses in the streets.

Grandmother Yasmina secretly names her white duck after her most-hated co-wife Lalla Thor as a private act of defiance.

Lalla Thor discovers the duck named after her and angrily summons Grandfather Tazi to punish Yasmina for the insult.

Chama performs her invented story of how harems began, concluding that modern men's power is no longer measured by imprisoned women.

Grandmother Yasmina teaches Fatima that a harem is not defined by walls but is carried within as invisible rules and traditions.

Fatima's mother begs Father to move out of the harem, but Father refuses, saying he cannot betray tradition while his mother lives.

The harem women are permitted to attend a movie; Mother defies Father by wearing a djellaba and a tiny transparent veil.

Aunt Habiba retells the complete story of Princess Budur, who disguises herself as a man and becomes the ruler of a kingdom.

A family council meeting is convened to decide whether Fatima may leave Koranic school and attend the new nationalist school.

Fatima thrives at the nationalist school while the family council denies Mother's separate request to attend adult literacy classes.

Mother tells Fatima she must grow up and transform the world on behalf of all the women who were never able to do so.

Samir is expelled from the women's hammam for having a man's stare, marking an irreversible separation between him and Fatima.

Fatima grows up in a harem in Fez alongside her cousin Samir, learning early that invisible frontiers organize her powerlessness as a woman. Her mother's retelling of Scheherazade's story teaches Fatima that words will determine her chances of happiness, setting her life's purpose in motion. Visits to Grandmother Yasmina's farm reveal that even a harem without walls imprisons women through customs and laws carried silently within the mind. At home, Fatima watches her mother beg Father to leave the harem, only to be refused by a man who places tradition above his wife's happiness. The turning point arrives when Fatima is allowed to attend a nationalist school, while her mother's own request to join adult literacy classes is denied. The memoir closes as Samir is expelled from the women's bath, marking an irreversible crossing into a world permanently divided by gender and power.

The key events shaping Fatima's childhood in a 1940s Moroccan harem.

Fatima begins attending Koranic school at age three and learns that breaking the sacred hudud leads to sorrow and unhappiness.

The harem's women secretly listen to Radio Cairo using an unlawful spare key whenever the men leave the house.

During a visit to Grandmother Yasmina's farm, Fatima discovers women there ride horses, swim in rivers, and live with far greater freedom.

Yasmina tells Fatima that Allah declared all Muslims equal and urges her granddaughter to never accept inequality from anyone.

Grandfather Tazi confronts Yasmina about the duck; she accepts his bribe bracelet without promising to rename the animal.

Tamou returns to the farm carrying the corpses of her murdered family; Yasmina takes her in and nurses her back to life over several months.

The co-wives on Yasmina's farm move dishwashing sessions to the river so they can swim; Lalla Thor's furious protests are overruled.

Fatima's mother and father share secret moonlit picnics on the harem terrace, the only moments when Mother reaches full happiness.

Fatima and Samir attend Friday political meetings in the men's salon, watching young nationalist men discuss Morocco's future in both Arabic and French.

Father explains to Fatima the history of Arabs, Jews, and the ancient Andalusian communities after her teacher accuses her of blasphemy.

Fatima and Samir grow terrified that dark-haired people will be targeted by the Germans; Mother tears a covering scarf off Fatima's head.

Cousin Chama stages an elaborate theatrical play about Princess Asmahan's adventurous life, inspiring Fatima to dream of becoming an actress.

Fatima and cousins Samir and Malika sneak onto the forbidden rooftop terrace to privately debate and analyze the meaning of the word harem.

Cousin Chama secretly gives Fatima chewing gum in exchange for delivering hidden love letters between Chama and her admirer Chadli Bennis.

Father buys Mother expensive French cosmetics to replace her traditional beauty treatments; Mother throws them out, refusing to surrender control.

Beneath the main turning points of Fatima's story, the harem's women carry out small acts of resistance and carve out pockets of joy within their confined lives. Women secretly tune in to Radio Cairo, wash dishes in the river, and share moonlit terrace picnics, creating minor freedoms within a system designed to contain them. Fatima also connects these personal struggles to Morocco's broader history, learning about colonial violence, the ancient ties between Arabs and Jews, and the personal cost paid by women like the war heroine Tamou. Stories of Princess Asmahan thrill the harem women and spark Fatima's first dream of a life lived on her own terms, while the men debate the nation's political future in their closed salon. Tension between tradition and change runs through every encounter, culminating in Mother's fierce refusal to let Father replace her beauty rituals with French laboratory cosmetics. These secondary moments reveal that the harem's women are never passive—they are always finding ways to assert dignity, joy, and identity within the walls that confine them.

The daily lives and quiet rebellions of the harem's women.

Mother teaches Fatima that some true words must be kept secret, warning her to chew her words carefully before letting them out.

Fatima discovers Aunt Habiba's Friday storytelling sessions and vows to become an expert storyteller who can talk listeners into other worlds.

Fatima and Samir use Aunt Habiba's trick of feigning disinterest to draw out secrets about sex and harems from Cousin Malika.

Tamou arrives at Grandfather's farm seeking supplies for her trapped Rif people; her warrior presence awakens in the other wives a sense of their own inner force.

Yasmina uses the example of a peasant who covers his eyes before unveiled women to show Fatima that the harem lives inside the mind.

Fatima's teacher Lalla Tam accuses Fatima of utter blasphemy for confusing the Arab conquest of Spain with verses from the Koran.

The harem women secretly gather to listen to Lebanese singer Princess Asmahan on the radio, preferring her tragic pursuit of happiness to more respectable singers.

Chama stages plays about Egyptian feminist Huda Sha'raoui publicly throwing off her veil in a march and winning women the right to vote.

Aunt Habiba tells Fatima that she must develop a real talent and find a bigger role to play in life, not just in Chama's performances.

Fatima and cousins consult Aunt Habiba about the contradictions in harem definitions; Habiba tells them to accept tanaqod, or contradiction, as part of life.

Mina participates in a secret hadra possession dance at Sidi Belal's house; Fatima sneaks along and is awestruck by women freed from all inhibitions.

Fatima repeatedly climbs inside the harem's giant olive jars to reenact Mina's ordeal at the bottom of the well and train herself to overcome fear.

Mother and Chama embroider a bird with outstretched wings while the grandmothers insist on traditional patterns, sparking an open argument about freedom and expression.

Chama declares Fatima officially mature; Fatima chooses the women's beauty rituals over Samir's childhood games when forced to decide between them.

Mina tells Fatima that the separation of men and women creates a line of power, and women who cannot get out are on the powerless side.

Throughout her childhood, Fatima experiences a series of revelations that deepen her understanding of power, identity, and the invisible forces that confine women. Early lessons about the danger of careless words and the magic of storytelling plant the seeds of her ambition to become a teller of tales. From Yasmina's explanation of the harem carried silently in the mind to Aunt Habiba's advice about developing a personal talent, each discovery expands Fatima's grasp of how women survive and resist within systems that deny their worth. She witnesses women fight oppression through plays about real-life feminists, through secret possession dances that shake loose their inhibitions, and through beauty rituals that proclaim their bodies have value. Chama's declaration that Fatima is officially mature, and the choice Fatima makes to join the women's rituals over childhood games with Samir, mark her irreversible crossing into a new stage of life. The memoir closes not with hope but with Mina's sobering revelation that the divide between men and women creates a permanent line of power, placing women firmly on the powerless side.

The discoveries and emotional shifts that shape Fatima's understanding of power and freedom.