ONCE UPON A time, in a remote village high in the mountains, lived a sheik and his wife, who loved each other dearly. The sheik’s frail and sickly wife was expecting a child, and when the time came for the baby to be born, a fierce snowstorm raged and snow fell heavily for miles and miles. So heavily, in fact, that the man could not go in search of the doctor who might have saved his wife’s life. She died with her newborn daughter in her arms after naming her Thaljiyeh, which means “snow maiden.”
For a long time, the sheik was inconsolable over the death of his wife. He took no notice of his beautiful daughter, who was looked after by her maternal grandmother.
Thaljiyeh grew into a kind and lovely child, with a snowy complexion, smoky-blue eyes, and hair black as soot. But still her father chose to ignore her.
AFTER A TIME, he fell in love with a young widow with two daughters of her own, and they married. His new wife was a beautiful woman with many fine clothes, always perfumed and soft-voiced, but with a heart as bitter as gall and as dark as a winter’s night. She had hidden her true nature from her new husband, so he did not know that his wife hated his daughter and was
