AM Wilkins

In 1950s Tehran, seven-year-old Ellie lives in grand comfort until the untimely death of her father, forcing Ellie and her mother to move to a tiny home downtown. Lonely and bearing the brunt of her mother’s endless grievances, Ellie dreams of a friend to alleviate her isolation. Luckily, on the first day of school, she meets Homa, a kind, passionate girl with a brave and irrepressible spirit. Together, the two girls play games, learn to cook in the stone kitchen of Homa’s warm home, wander through the colorful stalls of the Grand Bazaar, and share their ambitions for becoming “lion women.”

At some point, every one of us embarks on a journey to find love. We meet people, date, get into and out of relationships, all with the hope of finding someone with whom we share a deep connection. This seems standard now, but it’s wildly different from what people did even just decades ago. Single people today have more romantic options than at any point in human history. With technology, our abilities to connect with and sort through these options are staggering. So why are so many people frustrated?

In 1972 Felix Garrido, the Guam-born father of Teresa and Peggy Garrido, extracts from three-year-old Teresa a promise to always take care of her little sister. Teresa vows that she will, and their father walks out of their lives. His last words to Teresa are that he will come back for them. He never does. Always with thoughts of her father in the back of her mind, with the hope that someday he will come back into their lives, Teresa begins to feel an emotional pull to the island of Guam.