A spirited artist with a can-do attitude, Yvonne Wakefield naively leaves behind a secure life in the lush Pacific Northwest to teach art in the desert state of Kuwait. Over the course of six years, she will instruct university aged Muslim women, earn her student's trust, and learn the consequences of freedom of expression, taken for granted in one culture but not granted in another.

Despite obstacles set by her detractors, she persists, and she and her students flourish. Yet the traps never disappear, only multiply as others set more for her, intent on denying what they have no desire to understand. Told from the unique perspective of an artist, Suitcase Filled with Nails is a colorful, true, and timely tale about living and coping in the Middle East.