The twin sons Marion and Shiva Stone are coming of age in an Ethiopia on the brink of revolution, bound together by a shared interest in medicine and forever divided by their love for the same woman.

This memorable, heartbreaking story opens in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 1974, on the eve of a revolution. Yonas kneels in his mother's prayer room, pleading to his god for an end to the violence that has wracked his family and country.