The Stationery Shop of Tehran

Roya is terribly homesick and feels disoriented and lost in California. She and Zari grow more attached to each other than ever. Zari throws herself enthusiastically into American culture and finds an idealistic, revolutionary American boyfriend, called Jack. Jack is passionate about poetry, so Zari also begins to take an interest in literature. Roya, instead, has given up on both literature and love and is dedicating herself to the study of chemistry.

Roya is struggling with her chemistry revision in a café when a boy who reminds her of Tintin joins the queue for coffee. She is immediately attracted to him and, in her flustered state, drops her teaspoon, and then knocks over his coffee. The boy helps her mop up the mess and then sits with her at her table. He tells her that, coming from Boston, he is also struggling to get used to Californian culture. The two arrange to visit the Powerhouse Gallery together after finals and before the Christmas break.

The chapter is a letter from Bahman to Roya, which she apparently never receives. We learn that he waited for her on Baharestan, not Sepah Square, and that he believes that Roya deliberately jilted him.