A poor, overweight orphan girl is forced into marriage with a homeless man; a few days later, he arrives in a Rolls-Royce.

The neighbor giggled, « Even a madman wouldn’t want her. » The aunt paused, « At this point, even he would do. » Amara, behind the curtain, absorbed every word. She had always known she wasn’t wanted, but hearing it said like that, as if she were excess baggage, did something irreversible to her. That night, she didn’t cry. She imagined going to work in the city, cleaning houses, disappearing somewhere no one would know her story. But fear held her captive. She had no money, no connections. Staying seemed safer than risking the unknown, even though staying hurt.

The next morning, as she was sweeping the compound, a man appeared at the gate. His clothes were threadbare, his sandals nearly in tatters, and his beard thick and unkempt. He looked like what the village would call a scoundrel, but his eyes were calm and observant. Amara stopped, broom in hand. For a split second, an inexplicable connection passed between them: the recognition of two souls accustomed to rejection. Her aunt came out a few moments later, and the course of Amara’s life began to change, though she didn’t yet know it.