Nadia criticizes Yara's cooking, finds a cobweb in her kitchen, and chides her for not participating in the Arab community.

Yara calls white colleague Amanda a 'fucking racist' at a faculty meeting and storms out.

Department chair Jonathan suspends Yara from teaching and requires her to complete counseling before returning.

Yara's first therapy session with counselor William ends with him telling her she is experiencing serious depression.

Yara meets culinary professor Silas at a faculty event and the two begin an unlikely friendship.

Yara's father calls to say Fadi complained about her behavior and tells her to be a better wife.

Jonathan tells Yara that both her teaching and graphic design contracts will not be renewed due to budget cuts.

Yara begs Fadi to plan a vacation for their tenth anniversary; he reluctantly agrees to consider it.

On their anniversary, Fadi gives Yara a hamsa bracelet instead of planning a trip, and they argue.

Yara stops cooking dinner for Fadi and realizes she will never be happy in their marriage.

Yara begins sessions with new therapist Esther, feeling immediately at ease in a way she never did with William.

Esther explains the concept of generational trauma to Yara, linking her emotional struggles to the legacy of the Nakba.

Fadi tells Yara he has lost his job after a dispute with his business partner Ramy.

Yara runs into Ramy, who reveals that Fadi had been lying and misusing company funds.

Yara tells Fadi she is filing for divorce and then moves into a nearby apartment with her daughters.

Yara is a Palestinian American woman juggling her roles as wife, mother, and college art professor in North Carolina while quietly feeling unseen and unfulfilled. After a racist incident at work forces her into counseling, she begins to confront the emotional toll her marriage and career have taken on her. She loses her job, and her attempts to push Fadi toward greater intimacy and mutual respect are repeatedly rebuffed. A new therapist, Esther, helps her understand that her struggles are rooted in generational trauma stretching back to the Palestinian Nakba. When Fadi loses his job and is revealed to have been dishonest, Yara's last reason to stay dissolves. She files for divorce, moves into her own apartment with her daughters, and looks ahead to opening an arts center for people of color.

The core arc of Yara's fight for freedom and self-discovery.

Yara teaches the first day of her art course, announcing she will include artists of color alongside canonical figures.

Yara's white colleagues ask stereotyping questions about her parenting; all three then receive an email about a student cruise to Scandinavia.

Fadi dismisses Yara's wish to chaperone the student cruise, calling the idea unreasonable.

Yara and Fadi argue about her independence after the faculty meeting incident; she smashes a glass in frustration.

Yara recalls visiting a fortune teller who told her mother she was irreversibly cursed by the evil eye.

Yara gets a haircut to boost her confidence; Fadi tells her he doesn't like it.

At a dinner party at Ramy's house, Yara envies the open affection between Ramy and his wife.

Silas brings Yara a home-cooked meal of coq au vin to her office, deepening their friendship.

While filming Silas's cooking class, he reveals he is gay, and the two bond over their shared sense of not belonging.

Yara has lunch at Silas's mother Josephine's home and breaks down crying when asked about her childhood.

In her journal, Yara recalls Teta describing the family's violent displacement from Palestine during the Nakba.

Yara confronts her father about his years of beating her mother; he insists her mother deserved it.

Yara and Fadi argue when she asks for more emotional connection; he tells her she needs serious help.

Yara sells her paintings; Silas's mother buys one and offers to display the rest to get Yara more exposure.

Yara confesses to Esther that she revealed her mother's affair to her father and admits she has had thoughts of self-harm.

These events trace the smaller but significant pressures that accumulate in Yara's daily life as a Palestinian American woman. From racist microaggressions by colleagues to her husband's dismissiveness about her career, Yara is surrounded by forces that minimize who she is. Her unlikely friendship with Silas gives her a glimpse of genuine empathy and connection, while key memories—a cursed fortune, a secret affair, the story of the Nakba—slowly clarify the sources of her pain. When she is denied the full-time position she was promised and stripped of her professional identity, her emotional crisis deepens. Her growing self-awareness, supported by Silas and later Esther, ultimately helps her take the bold steps necessary to leave her old life behind.

The everyday pressures and small moments that shaped Yara's breaking point.

Teta reads Yara's mother's coffee grounds before her emigration and gives her a hamsa necklace for protection.

Fadi sides with Jonathan about Yara needing therapy; Yara recalls he once subtly steered her away from pursuing a law degree.

At the playground, Yara flashes back to her mother slapping her as a child and nearly loses her temper with her daughters.

Yara tells counselor William she is finally ready to talk; he suggests she keep a journal to process her memories.

Silas wins his custody battle and encourages Yara to face her fears; she resolves to confront her childhood demons.

In her journal, Yara recalls listening as a child to her parents' violent fight and trying to mentally escape the scene.

In her journal, Yara recalls a secret beach trip her mother took with a lover, where Yara provoked her mother's anger.

Yara realizes her mother had an extremely difficult life and stops judging her past behavior so harshly.

Yara confides in Silas that her father abused her mother and reveals for the first time that her mother is dead.

After Fadi refuses to help clean up following his parents' visit, Yara realizes she cannot remain in the marriage.

In her journal, Yara recalls the day she told her father about her mother's affair; that night he violently beat her mother.

Yara confronts Fadi with what Ramy told her; he denies everything; she sleeps on the sofa and resolves to forgive herself.

Esther and Yara conclude together that Yara has never had anything to feel guilty about.

Yara calls her father and announces she is divorcing Fadi; he rages at her but she will not back down.

In her final journal entry, Yara recalls her mother once predicting that there would be goodness ahead in Yara's life.

This pool follows the psychological breakthroughs that transform Yara from a woman paralyzed by inherited guilt into someone ready to forge her own path. Beginning with a family legacy rooted in superstition and survival, Yara gradually uncovers the true sources of her pain—her father's violence, her mother's trauma, and a childhood spent learning to suppress her feelings. Therapy with William and then Esther gives her a language for her experience, and her friendship with Silas offers her the model of honest, compassionate connection she has never had. As she journals her way through her darkest memories and stops blaming herself for her family's wounds, she gains the clarity needed to end her marriage. The novel closes with a tender memory of her mother's own prediction that Yara would find goodness ahead.