The storyteller remarks that as Ahmed left his teenage years, he grew increasingly tyrannical toward his sisters and uncommunicative with his mother. Working some days at his father’s studio—where he displays efficient business skills unrivaled by his father—Ahmed returns home only to cloister himself in his room for days on end, staying up late reading and writing. Noting his isolation punctuated by occasional violent outbursts, Ahmed’s mother surmises that her son is going mad.

At 20 years of age, Ahmed approaches his father to request his opinion on his male physical attributes: his voice, skin, and muscle tone. To his father’s perfunctorily neutral responses, Ahmed inches toward an honest discussion regarding his biological sex, the dissimulation of which he admits to finding enjoyable and interesting, as passing as a male gives him privileges in society. To his father’s deaf ears, Ahmed then announces that he would like to marry, in fulfillment of his duties as a Muslim man. Incapable of replying, his father cannot hide his disturbance. Over time, Ahmed reveals his choice bride as his cousin Fatima, a disfigured epileptic; shocked, his mother deems him a monster intent on bringing misery to his family.