Thiana depicts Calliope's and Thiana's struggles with life's adversities, and Thiana's courage and determination in forging a better life for herself and her family. Thiana, the book's heroine, grows through life experiences, her character steels with every adversity life throws in her path. The narrative begins around 1920 in a remote mountain village in the northwestern Greece called Avdela, and moves to Salonika and Romania, encompassing the events up to, during, and after Word War II, including the closing of the Iron Curtain. The book depicts picturesque settings in the northwestern Greece and the customs and language of the Macedonian people.