After a year in power, the Khalq regime, financed by Moscow, was faced with stiff resistance to its radical land and social reforms. By the second week of May 1979, the country was so emotionally brittle that any criticism of that first Communist government met lethal retaliation. More and more Soviet troops shored up the dwindling clout of the Afghan army. The secret police arrested hundreds, accusing them of sabotage against Khalq's Marxist authority. Religious leaders were assaulted. Whole villages were destroyed for supporting guerillas fighting in the mountains. Three months after the killing of Adolph Dubs, the American ambassador, and six weeks after a bloody revolt in the western city of Heart, the army was desperate to maintain control.

Aziz Rashani is caught up in a dangerous need to change what must be changed while keeping tradition. His relationship with a foreign woman adds a complex problem to a dilema which threatens him, his family, and all he knows and has loved about Afghanistan and the desert which surrounds his determination. Aksandar is the way in as well as the way out.