In the once beautiful city of Aleppo, one Syrian family descends into tragedy and ruin. Irrepressible Sawsan flirts with militias, the ruling party, and finally religion, seeking but never finding salvation. She and her family are slowly choked in violence and decay, as their lives are plundered by a brutal regime. Set between the 1960s and 2000s, "No Knives in the Kitchens of This City" speaks, with eloquence and startling honesty, to the persecution of a whole society.