The village of Araya nestles in the hillside overlooking the city of Beirut, Lebanon and the Mediterranean coast. In the valley below, an ancient spring flows where the Phoenicians once lived. For centuries thereafter, people converged and settled at the water's edge, and as societies came and went, certain customs and traditions remained. In the summer of 1970, a young couple, Fares Haddad and Rose Khoury, childhood friends, fell in love and wanted to marry. According to tradition, the oldest girl should marry first. Rose's older sister Camellia fell in love with a man of different religious beliefs and was forbidden to marry him. She rejected all suitors, leaving Rose unable to follow her heart. Fares, determined to marry her, defied her father by continuing to see Rose, thereby setting up a tragic set of circumstances. This is their story.