The main character of the book is Betty Mahmoody. She is a loving mother and is remarried with Moody. If they are going to Iran for a holiday, he refused to allow them to leave. She never thought Moody would take her there against her will, because he had sworn by the Koran that they will return to the USA after two weeks and she believed him. Betty is a strong woman who keeps having faith that she and her daughter will escape Iran and can go back to the USA some day.
Moody Mahmoody: Moody is Betty's husband and he is born in Iran. In the beginning of the book he is a good husband and father, but when they are in Iran, he changed into a very bad person when he started to beat his wife and daughter. He won't let his wife and child go back to the USA and lied about it.
Betty Mahmoody, a Michigan divorcee with two young sons, met and fell in love with a very nice, intellectual, Westernized doctor from Iran. He had studied and qualified in America. They were happy and eventually married, though she did not enjoy visits from his countrymen, who treated her as inferior. They had a little girl, Mahtob. After much persuasion, Betty agreed to visit Moody's family in Iran when Mahtob was four.
Once there, Moody changes, becoming more domineering,
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Little Mahtob must go to school, a dreadful place. But Betty receives help and kindness from one of the teachers who allows her to stay and help out. During these breaks from Moody, she risks all, seeking help from various strangers whom the teacher suggests. Betty grasps at anything. Even rumors that people-smugglers kill, rape and rob, then abandon their charges, do not deter her. The Swiss Embassy people have warned her; they are unable to help either. Someone gives her a lead, she connects with a woman, then a man who may help. He will not take children. Again, she must wait in fear, her hatred of Moody and what he is doing growing