Amir meets Soraya at the flea market and is infatuated with her. From then on, every night of the week becomes a "Yelda" for him before he could see her once again at the weekly flea market. Metaphorically, "Yelda" was the "starless night tormented lovers kept vigil enduring the endless dark waiting for the sun to rise and bring with it their loved one." Sorya wants to become a teacher and she is majoring in general education at Ohlone Junior College in Fremont. The attraction is mutual and she asks him to read to her one of his stories. Baba who is able to understand that Amir is in love with Soraya tries to dissuade him by reminding him that General Taheri, Soraya's father a Pashtun will not permit his honour and pride to agree to the match. True to Baba's prediction General Taheri chances upon Amir when he gives a story he has written to Soraya and takes it from him and throws it into to the garbage can, remarking casually "They say it will rain this week. Hard to believe, isn't it."
Baba is diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer. He refuses medical tratment and instructs Amir not to tell anyone remarking "I don't want anybody's sympathy." However, when he collapses with a seizure at the flea market everyone comes to know. Soraya and her family visit Baba. Days later, at Amir's insistence Baba arranges Amir’s engagement to Soraya after getting the approval of General Taheri. Soraya, in private,reveals to Amir her past: when she was eighteen and was living in Virginia she ran away with a man and lived with him for a month and her father searched for her and eventually brought her back home. Amir admits to her that he is slightly disturbed by her confession but that he loves her nevertheless. Amir recognises that she is a more courageous person than himself because he is unable to share his secret guilt with her of how he had betrayed Hassan:"I suspected there were many ways in which Soraya Taheri was a better person than me. Courage was just one of them."
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