One rainy afternoon in Istanbul a woman walks into a doctor's surgery. 'I want an abortion' she announces. She is nineteen years old and unmarried. What happens that afternoon is to change her life and the lives of everyone around her. Twenty years later Asya Kazanci lives with her extended family in Istanbul. Due to a mysterious family curse all the men die by age 41 so it is a house of women among them her beautiful rebellious mother Zeliha clairvoyant Auntie Banu and bar-brawl widow Auntie Cevriye. But when Asya's Armenian-American cousin Armanoush comes to stay long-hidden family secrets and Turkey's turbulent past begin to emerge.