How does a female university professor become a people-smuggler? How does a recent widow become the dear friend of the woman who had an affair with her husband? Strange things happen in the atmosphere of the Balkans -- rescuing refugees in Istanbul, producing American and Greek children in ways the mothers could never have imagined. This novel brings Lydia Barnes, an American professor, to Aegean shores where unfulfilled dreams come true. All it takes is her openness to new and trusted foreign relations,whether they be Greeks, Iraqis, or Kurds. Settle down for a suspenseful and ultimately heartwarming read. "Once the Mediterranean gets into a writer's blood, it keeps flowing off the pen," Eleni Fourtouni, poet, and author