In this chap­ter, Par­vana and her sis­ter Noo­ria dis­cuss Noo­ri­a’s upcom­ing wed­ding and poten­tial move to Mazar-e-Sharif, where girls can still go to school and live more freely under the Tal­iban’s regime. Par­vana is ini­tial­ly incred­u­lous about Nooria’s inten­tions, as she believes Noo­ria hard­ly knows the groom, who is a neigh­bor from child­hood. Noo­ria express­es her strong desire to escape Kabul’s oppres­sive envi­ron­ment, explain­ing that she is eager to pur­sue her edu­ca­tion, find work, and lead a mean­ing­ful life. She resents being con­fined to her cur­rent life, filled with care for younger sib­lings and futile school lessons.

The fam­i­ly dis­cuss­es their plans for the wed­ding, dur­ing which they will trav­el to Mazar. Par­vana is vehe­ment­ly opposed to this plan, fear­ing for her father’s well-being if they are not there when he poten­tial­ly returns from prison. How­ev­er, Moth­er reas­sures her, stat­ing that Mrs. Weera will remain behind to watch over Par­vana and inform her father of their where­abouts. Despite her protests and anger—exasperatedly stamped feet included—Parvana must ulti­mate­ly stay behind, as Moth­er explains the prac­ti­cal rea­sons for this deci­sion.

After a few days filled with con­flict and anx­ious feel­ings, the fam­i­ly pre­pares to leave. Par­vana feels con­flict­ed about being left in Kab­ul: while she is relieved that she can stay in her home, she is upset about miss­ing out on the fam­i­ly trip. In the weeks that fol­low, Par­vana has mixed feel­ings of free­dom and lone­li­ness. She enjoys hav­ing more time to read and learn with Mrs. Weer­a’s sup­port but miss­es the fam­i­ly dynam­ic.

While sell­ing items in the mar­ket, Par­vana has an encounter with rain dur­ing which she seeks shel­ter in a bombed-out build­ing. The chap­ter clos­es with Par­vana falling asleep in the dark­ened space, only to awak­en to hear a woman cry­ing, leav­ing read­ers in sus­pense about the woman’s iden­ti­ty and sit­u­a­tion amidst the ongo­ing tur­moil sur­round­ing them.