Zaleekhah arrives at her Uncle Malek’s home by the Riv­er Thames in 2018, feel­ing a sense of antic­i­pa­tion mixed with trep­i­da­tion. As the house comes into view, she is greet­ed warm­ly by Aunt Malek and her younger cousin, Lily, who is deeply engrossed in con­struct­ing a Vic­to­ri­an doll­house. The atmos­phere inside the home is one of qui­et activ­i­ty and famil­ial warmth, but there is an under­cur­rent of ten­sion. This ten­sion is most evi­dent in the strained con­ver­sa­tion between Uncle Malek and Aunt Malek, who seem to have clashed over recent issues, par­tic­u­lar­ly Zaleekhah’s choice in mar­riage. Their con­flict­ing views, espe­cial­ly regard­ing Zaleekhah’s life choic­es, cause a slight dis­com­fort in the air, though it is masked by polite greet­ings and small talk.

Once seat­ed, Zaleekhah notices the grand din­ing room, which is adorned with a chan­de­lier from the Great Exhibition—a sym­bol of Uncle Malek’s refined taste and inter­est in antiques. How­ev­er, as the con­ver­sa­tion shifts to Aunt Malek’s plans to build a Zen gar­den, the ten­sion becomes more appar­ent. Uncle Malek dis­miss­es the idea as an unnec­es­sary and expen­sive indul­gence, while Aunt Malek remains stead­fast in her vision, lead­ing to a sub­tle clash of val­ues between the two. Their dif­fer­ing approach­es to finances—Uncle Malek’s will­ing­ness to indulge his pas­sions and Aunt Malek’s more prag­mat­ic mindset—mirrors the larg­er issues at play in their rela­tion­ship. Zaleekhah, sit­ting in the mid­dle of it all, silent­ly observes the com­plex­i­ties of their mar­riage, mak­ing qui­et com­par­isons to her own feel­ings of dis­sat­is­fac­tion with her mar­riage.

The con­ver­sa­tion even­tu­al­ly turns to top­ics that are clos­er to Zaleekhah’s heart. She finds her­self more com­fort­able dis­cussing her pro­fes­sion­al life, espe­cial­ly the work she has been doing to restore lost rivers. She explains to her rel­a­tives the efforts she’s put into reviv­ing the Bièvre riv­er in Paris, one of many urban water­ways buried beneath the sprawl­ing cityscape. She also touch­es on the broad­er impli­ca­tions of this work, ref­er­enc­ing oth­er cities like Athens and Tokyo, where rivers have been hid­den or erad­i­cat­ed dur­ing urban devel­op­ment. Uncle Malek, ever skep­ti­cal, ques­tions the prac­ti­cal­i­ty of these efforts, sug­gest­ing that attempt­ing to restore some­thing as old as these rivers is a fool’s errand. His skep­ti­cism opens a deep­er con­ver­sa­tion about the gen­er­a­tional divide between progress and preser­va­tion, as Zaleekhah real­izes the con­trast between her for­ward-think­ing approach to the envi­ron­ment and Uncle Malek’s more con­ser­v­a­tive view on change.

The meal is served, and Zaleekhah’s mind begins to wan­der back to her child­hood, filled with fond mem­o­ries of a sim­pler time before tragedy struck her fam­i­ly. The warmth of her ear­ly years con­trasts sharply with the real­i­ty of her life now, and she can’t help but feel the weight of the past upon her. As Uncle Malek talks about fam­i­ly his­to­ry and the impor­tance of under­stand­ing one’s roots, Zaleekhah finds her­self reflect­ing on her own bro­ken ties with her par­ents. The dis­cus­sion forces her to con­front the ghosts of her past, as she real­izes how much her family’s his­to­ry still shapes her present life. In the qui­et moments that fol­low, Zaleekhah resolves to recon­nect with her cousin Helen, hop­ing that this recon­nec­tion might offer her some com­fort and clar­i­ty amid the unre­solved pain she feels.

Before she departs, Zaleekhah bor­rows a book on ancient Assyr­ia, cap­ti­vat­ed by the pos­si­bil­i­ty of learn­ing more about her her­itage and the sto­ries that have been passed down through the gen­er­a­tions. The book rep­re­sents a chance for her to con­nect more deeply with her past and dis­cov­er new insights into the cul­tures that have shaped her fam­i­ly. As she leaves the house, the weight of her past con­tin­ues to fol­low her, but there is a sense of hope as she pre­pares to embark on a new chap­ter of her life. The pos­si­bil­i­ty of growth, self-dis­cov­ery, and rec­on­cil­i­a­tion with her family’s his­to­ry offers a flick­er of opti­mism that, despite her pain, a brighter future might await.