Stephan reconnects with his Armenian roots but the difficulty he experiences because of his Westernized childhood, makes the novel a coming-of-age story, as well as a classic tale of love and war on the scale of Leo Tolstoy's "War and Peace". He wants to be an authentic Armenian, like his rival Haik and other boys. To prove himself to them, Stephan organizes a raid on a fruit orchard to replenish the Armenians' stores and to prove himself to Iskuhi, for he is as much bewitched by her as his father. He leaves Musa Dagh to fetch back Iskuhi's bible, left behind in his father's deserted house. (A long passage left out of the first English translation.)