Omar was born in 1948 in Jerusalem on the day of the Deir Yassin Massacre. To flee the violence, the neighbors, Subhia and her husband immediately whisked him away along with his mother and five-year-old sister Fatimah and reached Damascus. Omar's mother did not survive, and Omar and Fatimah were raised in Subhia's household with their children, although the two families were not blood relatives. Born into chaos and driven by forces beyond his control, Omar grew up to find his place in the world. He had only one thing to hold on to: a love that propelled him forward. Nadia, Subhia's daughter, was young and idealistic. Her attempts to be oblivious to the bleak reality of Palestinian refugees in Damascus were thwarted by her cowardly brother. Would she be able to break out of her traditional social mold to create her own destiny? Heartbreaking and moving, Bitter Almonds is about displacement and exile, family duty and honor, and the universal feelings of love and loss.