Malaka's parents divorced when she was in elementary school, and from then on she spent summers in Egypt or Qatar with her father and school years in California with her mother. This book weaves together memories of many summers in the Middle East, some joyful, some challenging. Malaka's father remarried and eventually had three more children with a woman named Hala, who Malaka saw more as a big sister or mentor than a mother. Their relationship forms one of the central emotional cores of this story as they connect across language and cultural barriers. Drawn in the same loose, energetic style as I Was Their American Dream, this story is a nuanced examination of a family forging closeness despite distance.