So, then. You want a story and I will tell you one... Afghanistan, 1952. Abdullah and his sister Pari live in the small village of Shadbagh.

To Abdullah, Pari, as beautiful and sweet-natured as the fairy for which she was named, is everything.

More like a parent than a brother, Abdullah will do anything for her, even trading his only pair of shoes for a feather for her treasured collection.

Each night they sleep together in their cot, their skulls touching, their limbs tangled. One day the siblings journey across the desert to Kabul with their father.

Pari and Abdullah have no sense of the fate that awaits them there, for the event which unfolds will tear their lives apart; sometimes a finger must be cut to save the hand.