Ayaan sets to bettering her prospects in Amsterdam, learning Dutch, and volunteering at the refugee center. She likes helping other immigrants, especially the Somalis who speak little Dutch or English, acting as a translator for them.

She receives a letter from her father, beginning with his familiar endearment for her, “My dearest Liver” (203), and asking her in a roundabout fashion to return to Osman. Now that her father and Osman know her whereabouts, Ayaan fears they will arrive to take her away under the threat of physical violence. Her fears come true one day when Osman arrives at her caravan with three Somali men.

The men go away for a while as Osman talks to Ayaan, asking her to come with him. Ayaan refuses. It is decided that a tolka, a gathering of the most important Osman Mahamud clansmen, will be held on January 26th to decide the fate of Ayaan and her husband.

When the day arrives, the gathering is attended by Abdellahi Moussa Boqor, the Crown Prince of all the Osman Mahamud of Somalia. Ayaan dresses modestly for the meeting, covered from head to ankle to honor her customs, yet also asserts her individuality by wearing jeans. She respectfully listens to the Crown Prince make his case about the importance of marriage and tradition, but when he asks her for her final answer, she tells him she will not be returning to Osman, as her soul does not allow it. There is a stunned silence, but the clansmen accept her choice, as is the custom.

Ayaan writes to Hirsi, explaining her decision. A few days later, she gets back her letter, on which Hirsi has written in red ink—the color of blood—that he disowns and curses her for bringing disgrace to him. This is the last letter he will ever write to her. Ayaan is swamped with grief.

After receiving her father’s letter, Ayaan feels bleak. However, her spirits lift as her Dutch improves, with Ayaan now able to translate directly from Somali to Dutch, without using English. Ayaan often accompanies Somali refugee women as a translator to the doctor; one woman turns out to have a form of female genital mutilation so extreme the doctor rips off his gloves in anger while examining her. The woman has had “farooni, the excision so extreme that the woman’s whole genitals are scraped off and mend into a hard band of dark skin” (213).

Ayaan makes friends with the people working at the asylum-seeker center, some of them local Dutch women. With these friends, Ayaan begins to attend dinners and picnics. Hanneke, one of her Dutch friends, takes Ayaan to Amsterdam’s red-light district, where sex workers display themselves behind glass windows. Hanneke tells Ayaan sex work is legal in Amsterdam and the women are empowered, but Ayaan cannot help but think of the display as dehumanizing and exploitative. With another friend, Ellen, a Christian, Ayaan discusses faith. She notes that Ellen’s relationship with God seems to be based on dialogue and love, whereas hers seems driven by fear.

In 1993, Ayaan is assigned a two-bedroom flat of her own in Ede. Ayaan takes up temporary jobs to make ends meet, but wants a more structured career. She decides to enroll at a university, first attending vocational college to prepare for a pre-university qualification called a propadeuse. During this time, Ayaan distances herself from other Somalis, since she believes they judge her harshly. She also dislikes it when the Somalis criticize their new country and, in her opinion, use racism as a strategy to get what they want. Ayaan acknowledges that there is racism in Holland, but also thinks “the claim of racism can […] be strategic” (224).

Unexpectedly, Haweya arrives in Frankfurt and calls Ayaan on the phone. A delighted Ayaan invites her sister to come live with her in Holland and starts preparing an asylum application for her. When Haweya arrives, she tells Ayaan that she fled Nairobi after having an abortion. She had been pregnant from her lover, a married Trinidadian man. Ayaan is shocked at Haweya’s relationship with a non-Muslim, but hides her response, offering unconditional support to her sister.

Over the next few months, Ayaan hopes to bring the listless Haweya back to life, but Haweya seems perpetually dreamy, spending most of her time lying on Ayaan’s sofa. Haweya goes on to pursue a relationship with a Somali man at the asylum center and becomes pregnant. Although Ayaan tells her abortion is a “sin,” Haweya gets the pregnancy terminated.

Meanwhile, Ayaan passes her qualifying exams and takes more courses. She is struck by a course in psychology which explores the relationship between childhood trauma and emotional and psychological problems in adulthood. She wonders if childhood beatings and the genital mutilation permanently affected Haweya’s psyche.

When she suggests as much to Haweya, her sister reacts badly, thinking Ayaan is implying that she has mental health issues. Haweya stops going to therapy and her behavior worsens, once even locking Ayaan out of her house in the cold. Ayaan realizes she and Haweya cannot live together any more. Haweya moves out. Ayaan decides to study at “the oldest and finest university in Holland: the University of Leiden” (236).

Although she is told political science is too dry a subject, Ayaan wants to specialize in it at Leiden, since she has lived the effects of politics up close. As her studies progress, Ayaan immerses herself in Dutch history and the Enlightenment, learning that the Dutch too were not always the liberal people they are now, using the values of the Enlightenment to reform Christianity.

The more Ayaan reads the works of philosophers like the 17th-century Spinoza, the harder she finds it to reconcile her faith with her intellectual ideas. Scientific thinking involves critical thinking and questioning, but Islam means submission to Allah’s will and submission does not brook interrogation. Sometimes Ayaan feels she is committing blasphemy by reading that faith must be critically examined.

In this period, she rents a home from a woman called Chantal, cycling to university on a rented bicycle. Since she cannot find a hairdresser who knows how to treat Somali hair, she cuts her hair short. With more and more refugees from Muslim countries pouring in, Ayaan becomes sought-after as a translator. Social services often call her to work with embattled women who do not speak Dutch. Ayaan is saddened to see how the women suffer from domestic violence and rape even in safe Holland; in one instance a Somali girl is gangraped by four Ethiopian men with whom she had shared a taxi. The contrast between the horrors of the world and the beautiful order of Chantal’s house stuns Ayaan. As Ayaan is called to prisons, abortion clinics, and domestic violence shelters, she cannot help note that the places have a disproportionate number of immigrants, especially Muslims. She begins to develop the opinion that the problems arise because many Muslim refugees continue to follow the old ways, hesitant to adapt to Dutch values. She also fears that Dutch liberalism in creating Muslim-only spaces can lead to the continuation of exploitation against women. For instance, a forced marriage can be excused as a cultural norm, rather than the crime it usually is under Dutch law. Over time, Ayaan moves out of Chantal’s house and eventually rents an apartment with Marco, a Dutch reporter. Ayaan and Marco begin a romantic relationship.

Haweya, now living on welfare in a guest house, turns more devout, criticizing Ayaan’s growing doubt as kufr. Ayaan can understand the appeal of Islam for her sister, who has had a tough life, but also wants her to stop believing in the afterlife and focus on the present. Haweya moves in with Ayaan and Marco, but the arrangement proves untenable because of Haweya’s worsening mental health. She moves out again, and soon Ayaan receives news that Haweya has had a serious mental health episode. Ayaan admits Haweya to a hospital, where she is kept in a padlocked cell to avoid harming herself. Hirsi finally phones Ayaan and tells her he is proud of her for taking care of her little sister. Ayaan is happy to be reconciled with her father.

Since Haweya cannot be institutionalized for long against her will, she is let out eventually and moves back to Kenya at Asha’s insistence. Ayaan is against the decision, as she feels Haweya’s mental health will only worsen back home. Her foreboding proves true a few months later when Asha calls with the worst news: Haweya died after an infection from a miscarriage. By the time Ayaan gets to Kenya, Haweya is already buried. Ayaan gives Asha, who is living in deplorable conditions, some money and asks her to move to Somalia to be with her people. Ayaan returns to Holland heartbroken, vowing to have nothing to do with her old life.