Veron Dumehjian, an Armenian girl, lives comfortably with her family in Azizya, Turkey in the first years of the twentieth century; this changes forever when, in 1915, the government announces its intent to exterminate the Armenian people from its land. Forced on a death march across the "endless desert" and into neighboring Syria, Veron and her family endure unimaginable living conditions, starvation, cruelty, sickness, and death. Both refugee and orphan by age eleven, Veron moves from Syria to Greece to Italy and finally to the United States as a bride promised to an Armenian refugee living in Racine, Wisconsin. Through it all, Veron draws strength from her Armenian culture, a culture that tells her that "at the end of every bad road, a good road begins." Writing in the first-person voice of his mother, Kherdian emphasizes the power of his mother's courage and hopeful determination as he details the depth of her anguish and loss as a result of genocide.