Arezu is returning to Marvella in Spain for the first time in 20 years. She is looking back to the last time she was there and remembering Omar, her stepmother's nephew, Omar, who she recalls as her lover, her torturer, her confidant and enemy. She is the daughter of an Iranian mom and an estranged, British father. Her father had left her mother years earlier and was absent from Arezu's upbringing. She had gone to Marbella to spend the summer with her father in his apartment there, an attempt to build some sort of relationship. Her father never shows and the summer turns into a disaster, with her being seduced by Omar. She's returning to Marabella now, years later, to try to get some closure, to reclaim the self she was before Omar tore her apart. She thinks of it as confronting her ghosts. From the intro, this book appears that it will be a nuanced exploration of complicated emotions. I feel terrible for Arezu's treatment and misfortune - she has been hurt deeply by her father and by Oman. The author is clearly skilled at evoking deep feelings from the reader and at quickly building complicated and sympathetic characters.