In this compelling story of love, war, and hard choices set during the brutal Afghan-Soviet conflict of the 1980's, American journalist Elizabeth Owen dares to go where few men and virtually no women have gone before: into the war zone of remote and forbidding Afghanistan. Her journalistic objectivity is challenged by her feelings for Yusuf, an American-trained doctor working with the Mujahedeen. In the land where legend says Cain fled after killing Abel, Elizabeth witnesses the rending of Afghan society in a confusing war where brother fights brother, and son opposes father, but finds powerful sisterhood with Afghan women.