The adventures of a young American school teacher in Aghanistan before the Taliban. Twenty-two years old, newly graduated, Jean Boyce and her husband Walt are recruited by the Royal Afghan government to teach English. It is 1948, just three years after the end of WW II and a year after the bloody Partition of India and Pakistan, and Ghandi’s assassination. There is serious talk of WW III. A keen and candid observer, Jean writes vivid anecdotes about her colleagues, students, and the young afghans. She captures the joys and frustrations of life in the bazaars, running a household, and partying with the other expatriates in an Afghanistan where foreigners were treaded with amused tolerance and an American woman could walk home safely from a party after midnight.