I learned to use make-up to hide bruises.
Madya got used to violence from a young age: she saw it in the swollen face of her mother, endured by the hand of her father, who was the law at home.
She grew up defenseless: in her hometown, a small town of Imathia, people did not interfere with each other's family.
So, when at eighteen she meets Akis, a philologist from Salonica, she decides to run away, to seek affection, independence - to live free, without fear, pain and shame.
But the violence has many faces, and before love breaks, Madya knows the worst of all: the thing that plays love.
On the other side of life, she narrates her trials and joys, the gifts that fate gave her and stole from her. She talks about what she did and what she regretted, the strength she found within her, even in the extremes of despair.
A story about the ferocity of the next door and the cost of survival.
For love that needs sacrifices in order not to be just a word.
