Jacob arrives at Laban's family well, claims to be a kinsman, and promises to marry Rachel.

Leah takes Rachel's place as Jacob's veiled bride and spends the wedding night with him.

Rachel marries Jacob as his second wife after Jacob works additional months as bride-price.

Leah gives birth to Dinah, and all four sisters celebrate joyfully at having a daughter.

Rachel steals Laban's household gods before the family secretly departs for Canaan.

Jacob is found beaten and naked near the Jabbok river and the family camps while he recovers.

Jacob and his twin Esau reunite without violence and feast together with their assembled families.

Dinah has her first period and is welcomed into the red tent with a special ceremony.

Dinah meets Shalem, King Hamor's firstborn son, during a visit to Shechem, and the two become lovers.

Jacob demands all the men of Shechem undergo circumcision before he will consider approving Dinah's marriage.

Simon and Levi massacre every man in Shechem, kidnap the women and children, and steal all livestock.

Dinah curses Jacob and her brothers, declaring their wives will die and their flocks will dwindle.

Re-nefer finds Dinah at the gates of Shechem and takes her to Egypt to her brother's household.

Dinah gives birth to Shalem's son in Egypt with the help of midwife Meryt.

Dinah accompanies Joseph to Jacob's deathbed and receives Rachel's lapis ring from her brother Judah.

The story begins with Jacob arriving at Laban's camp and winning two wives, Leah and Rachel, before fathering a daughter named Dinah among his many children. After years of growing wealth and family conflict, Jacob's household leaves Laban's land and travels back to Canaan, where they reconcile with Jacob's twin Esau and settle near the city of Shechem. Dinah's womanhood is celebrated through a red tent ceremony, and she later falls deeply in love with Shalem, the firstborn son of Shechem's king Hamor. When Jacob's sons Simon and Levi massacre the men of Shechem in the name of family honor, Dinah curses her father and brothers and is rescued by the queen Re-nefer, who carries her to Egypt. In Egypt, Dinah gives birth to Shalem's son and builds a new life as a skilled midwife alongside her second husband Benia. Her long journey closes when she accompanies her brother Joseph to their dying father's bedside and returns home with her mother Rachel's lapis ring.

The core story of Dinah's life from Jacob's marriages to her final journey home.

Rachel begins menstruating and is welcomed into the red tent with a ceremony marking her womanhood.

Bilhah offers to bear a child for Rachel, lies with Jacob, and gives birth to Dan.

Zilpah asks Leah's permission to lie with Jacob and gives birth to twin sons Gad and Asher.

The enslaved woman Ruti begs Rachel to end her pregnancy, and Rachel gives her an herbal drink.

Ruti ends her own life before the family's departure, and Dinah discovers her body in a dry wadi.

The family crosses the Euphrates river and Dinah feels enchanted and transformed by the rushing water.

Laban searches the red tent for his stolen gods, and Rachel announces she sat on them during her menses.

The redheaded messenger Werenro arrives at Jacob's camp with a festival invitation and enchants Dinah with her songs.

Oracle Rebecca refuses to accept Tabea as a priestess because the proper menstrual rituals were never observed.

Jacob smashes the household gods after learning of Dinah's Opening ceremony through one of his daughters-in-law.

Re-nefer renames Dinah's newborn son Re-Mose and claims him as her own, raising him as a prince.

Re-Mose is sent to Memphis to apprentice as a scribe, leaving Dinah feeling utterly alone.

After Re-nefer and Nakht-re die, Dinah moves with Meryt to the village near the Valley of the Kings.

Benia the carpenter appears at the village one day, and Dinah agrees to go home with him as his wife.

Jacob's granddaughter Gera tells Dinah the fates of all her brothers, their wives, and their children.

While Dinah is the story's heart, the world she inhabits is built by the lives of those around her and the rituals that shape their days. Bilhah and Zilpah each bear children for Jacob, and the enslaved woman Ruti's suffering and eventual suicide reveal the brutal fate awaiting women without protection. The family's departure from Laban is marked by Rachel's daring theft of his household gods and her clever use of menstrual taboo to deflect his pursuit. Once settled near Shechem, the enchanting messenger Werenro opens Dinah's imagination to a wider world, and grandmother Rebecca's harsh rejection of Tabea at Mamre shows how even women's sacred spaces can carry cruelty. In Egypt, Dinah's newborn son is claimed and renamed by Re-nefer, eventually sent far away to train as a scribe, while Dinah herself finds a second home with midwife Meryt and a second husband in the gentle carpenter Benia.

The women, rituals, and turning moments that built the world around Dinah.

Jacob tells his sons the story of outwitting his twin Esau to claim their father Isaac's blessing.

Zilpah dreams of Dinah before her birth, seeing her walk on the backs of monsters into the sun.

Inna joins Jacob's family on the road after a bereaved husband threatens her life for failing to save his wife.

Rebecca tells Dinah she is not fit to be a priestess but that her life will be long.

A daughter-in-law reports Dinah's Opening ceremony to Jacob, who is angered to learn the women observed it.

Re-nefer senses Shalem's attraction to Dinah and arranges for Dinah to return to Shechem to meet him.

Hamor presents Jacob a bride-price for Dinah, but Jacob turns to Simon and Levi for counsel instead of his wives.

Dinah wakes in Shalem's bed to find his throat has been cut and herself covered in his blood.

Rachel dies in childbirth as Jacob's family flees the valley in the aftermath of the Shechem slaughter.

Dinah assists Meryt with a difficult twin birth and saves the surviving baby, establishing her Egyptian reputation.

Dinah recognizes the scarred blind singer performing at Re-Mose's welcome feast as the long-missing Werenro.

Dinah concludes that the powerful vizier is her brother Joseph after learning he rose from slavery through dream interpretation.

Re-Mose discovers his father Shalem was murdered by Jacob's sons and threatens to kill Joseph in vengeance.

Meryt dies with Dinah beside her, whispering the midwife's birth song as she passes.

Dinah dies and is welcomed in the afterlife by all the women who guided her through life.

The novel's most decisive moments are those where characters learn truths they cannot unlearn or make choices whose consequences outlast them. Early signs of danger appear in Zilpah's dark dream of Dinah before her birth, and in the midwife Inna joining the family after a violent threat reveals how exposed women are without protection. Rebecca's dismissal of Dinah as a future priestess quietly closes one possible life for her, while a daughter-in-law's report of the Opening ceremony to Jacob ignites a household conflict that accelerates tragedy. The queen Re-nefer's decision to bring Dinah back to Shechem leads to her love affair with Shalem and ultimately to the shattering moment when Dinah wakes to find him dead. In Egypt, Dinah establishes herself as a midwife, is stunned to recognize the scarred Werenro in a crowd, and then discovers that the powerful vizier is her brother Joseph—a revelation that tears her son from her forever before she finds her final peace.

The discoveries, confrontations, and choices that forever changed the story's course.