Elif Shafak unfolds two tantalizing parallel narratives - one contemporary and the other set in the thirteenth century. Ella Rubenstein is forty years old and unhappily married when she takes a job as a reader for a literary agent. Her first assignment is to read and report on a novel written by a man named Aziz Zahara. Ella is mesmerized by his tale of Shams's search for Rumi and the dervish's role in transforming the unhappy cleric into a committed mystic, passionate poet, and advocate of love. She is also taken with Shams's lessons, or rules, that offer insight into an ancient philosophy. As she reads on, she realizes that Rumi's story mirrors her own and that Zahara, like Shams, has come to set her free.