An American student returns to Bulgaria, the country he left as a child. His mission is to track down his grandfather and to find out why he suddenly cut off all contact with the family three years before. The trail leads him to a remote village on the border with Turkey, a place of pagan mysteries and black storks nesting in giant oaks. Soon he is drawn into a maze of half-truths and falls in love with an unobtainable Muslim girl. Captivating and brilliant.