Nora Reardon, a Philadelphia rug gallery owner, built a successful career searching for the Middle East's finest hand-woven rugs. Unfortunately, success has come at the expense of her young son, Tom. Frustrated and angry with her inattentiveness, Tom has turned to Muslim friends for companionship, and when Nora finds a hidden prayer rug in Tom's room, she reacts with fear and prejudice. Her new husband Carlos Ghazerian, raised as a Christian among Muslims in Turkey, has no problem with Tom's new-found Islamic faith. He accuses Nora of intolerance. Desperate to unite her family, Nora encourages them to join her in the annual Festival of a Thousand and One Nights in Paradise, New York. But the event is a disaster, friends die, rugs are destroyed, and Carlos and Tom are missing. Nora blames herself. But guilt, destruction, and death are no match for the power of a centuries-old Chinese silk rug as it weaves its way into Nora's life and proves that love between a parent and child can withstand even time itself.