How does Jean Heringman Willacy, a middle-aged, middle class American woman, end up living in Afghanistan? At retirement age, how is she transformed from exporter of trendy Afghan coats to ardent advocate for Afghan refugees?

Now compiled for the first time into a multi-layered and intriguing narrative, Jean’s unconventional story is captured in detailed diaries that span one of the most turbulent periods in Afghan history, both before and after the Soviet invasion. Together with her eyewitness accounts, live tape recordings, a unique collection of refugee children’s war drawings, and her own photographs, Jean’s diaries give singular insight into daily life in Afghanistan, in the refugee camps in Pakistan, and in exile in new countries around the world.

How does Jean conduct business in the predominantly male world of Kabul commerce? How is she caught up in a bloody, military coup? What does she experience in the new Soviet puppet state? What is her connection to the Mujahideen?

Reckless or courageous, can one Western woman, on her own, make a difference? And how does Jean’s life and the lives of innumerable Afghan refugees come to be inextricably bound together with a love as strong as any family tie?