A war is raging in Afghanistan as a coalition of Western forces tries to oust the Taliban by bombing the country. Parvana's father has died, and her mother, sister and brother have gone to a faraway wedding. Parvana doesn't know where they are. She just knows she has to find them. And so, masquerading as a boy, she sets out across the desolate countryside that Afghanistan has become, where she meets other children who are strays from the war. This...

Found wandering alone in a bombed-out Afghan school, 15-year-old Parvana mystifies American military forces by remaining silent, while spending her time remembering the past four years of her life, having been reunited with her mother and sisters and living in a village where her mother's finally managed to open a school for girls.