For two decades, Zeba was a loving wife, a patient mother, and a peaceful villager. But her quiet life is shattered when her husband, Kamal, is found brutally murdered with a hatchet in the courtyard of their home. Nearly catatonic with shock, Zeba is unable to account for her whereabouts at the time of his death. Her children swear their mother could not have committed such a heinous act. Kamal’s family is sure she did, and demands justice. Barely escaping a vengeful mob, Zeba is arrested and jailed.

Awaiting trial, she meets a group of women whose own misfortunes have led them to these bleak cells: 18-year-old Nafisa, imprisoned to protect her from an honor killing ; 25-year-old Latifa, a teen runaway who stays because it is safe shelter; 20-year-old Mezghan, pregnant and unmarried, waiting for a court order to force her lover’s hand. Is Zeba a cold-blooded killer, these young women wonder, or has she been imprisoned, like them, for breaking some social rule For these women, the prison is both a haven and a punishment; removed from the harsh and unforgiving world outside, they form a lively and indelible sisterhood.

Into this closed world comes Yusuf, Zeba’s Afghan-born, American-raised lawyer whose commitment to human rights and desire to help his homeland have brought him back. With the fate this seemingly ordinary housewife in his hands, Yusuf discovers that, like the Afghanistan itself, his client may not be at all what he imagines.

A moving look at the lives of modern Afghan women, The House with No Windows is astonishing, frightening, and triumphant.

Yusuf is the lawyer assigned to represent Zeba. Born in Kabul, his family fled Afghanistan when he was 11, eventually landing in Queens, where he worked his way through college, and then law school. A passion for human rights and a desire to help his beloved homeland, sends him back to Afghanistan, hoping to help patch together a functioning legal system after the fall of the Taliban. Now the fate of an accused murderer-a seemingly ordinary housewife-is in his hands, and Yusuf is discovering that, like the Afghanistan he thought he knew, Zeba and her story may not be at all what he expected.