Two families, who would otherwise never have come together, meet by chance at the Baltimore airport—the Donaldsons, a very American couple, and the Yazdans, the fully assimilated son of Iranian-born Maryam Yazdan and his attractive Iranian wife. Each couple is awaiting the arrival of an adopted infant daughter from Korea. After the babies are delivered, Bitsy Donaldson impulsively invites the Yazdans to celebrate: an “arrival party” that is repeated every year as the two families become more and more intertwined. Even Maryam is drawn in, up to a point. When she finds herself being courted by Bitsy Donaldson’s recently widowed father, all the values she cherishes—her traditions, her privacy, her otherness—are suddenly threatened.
