The book describes the experiences of a single American woman teaching in a university in Saudi Arabia between 1980 and 1982, just as the Islamic world was experiencing a reversal of previously achieved steps toward women's rights. The loosening of restrictions on women which had occurred during the 1970s was overturned when the fear of the rulers was heightened after the attempted take-over of the Grand Mosque in Mecca. The author takes us there with her while the Epilogue brings us up to today in Saudi Arabia.