Soraya, a low-level government official, is imprisoned when she defends a woman from village lords. Behind bars, she writes the Afghan President for help.

Married and the mother of two kids, Soraya finds that her job as head of the Kabul Crime Division is too much for her ineffectual and abusive husband, Karim. When her work leads her to investigate her father-in-law, Karim attacks her and she accidentally kills him. In short order, she is imprisoned and sentenced to death. Will a reasoned recounting of her story in the titular letter change the course of future events?—Anonymous