In 1984, when their daughter was four years old, Betty reluctantly agreed to accompany her husband on a two week vacation to Iran in order for his family to meet Mahtob.

In preparation for their arrival, Betty, at Moody's request, gave her American passport to him in order for it not to be confiscated by the customs official.

The family gave Betty a montoe and a roosarie (traditional female clothes in Iran) and instructed her to wear them whenever she went outside their home.

The day before their scheduled return to the United States, one of Moody's relatives went to the airport in order to make the preparations for their departure.

When she confronted Moody about not turning in her passport, he informed her that he had decided to stay and that Betty and Mahtob would remain in Iran for the rest of their lives.

When Betty and Mahtob returned to the house, Moody threatened to kill her if she left again and commanded the rest of the family to prevent her from leaving.

While watching Mahtob play in the park, Betty encountered Judy, another American woman married to an Iranian.

In December, two weeks after the dinner party, Rasheed informed Betty that the smuggler was unwilling to take a woman and a child on the journey over the mountains into Turkey, especially during the winter.

[2] Betty also mentions in the book that Ahmal had informed her that the cold weather and snowfall in Balochistan was more severe than usual and reports of bandits abducting travelers meant putting them at further risk, so he had reservations of using that route.

Knowing that this was her last chance before she was forced to leave Iran without her daughter, Betty called Amahl, asking for instructions.

For the next day and most of the night, they used horses to cross the snowy, mountainous border into Turkey, where Betty nearly succumbed to exhaustion and hypothermia.

Once they arrived, the U.S. Embassy granted them sanctuary and helped them get airline tickets for a trip back to the U.S. later that day.

On February 7, 1986, Betty and Mahtob finally arrived back home in Michigan, after spending eighteen months trapped in Iran.

He collaborated with Alexis Kouros to create a documentary, Without My Daughter, to counter the claims in Betty's book.

She also mentioned several instances of women who were not mistreated by their husbands, but also maintained, throughout the book, that most smugglers who helped people escape Iran could not be trusted.

[4] A tie-in edition of the book, to coincide with the 1990s film of the same name, was released by St. Martin's Press in 1991, complete with cover art depicting Sally Field as Betty and Sheila Rosenthal as Mahtob dressed in nightgowns while they pray together; this edition contained several rare black-and-white interior photographic screenshots from the film, including one of the actors smiling, in contrast to the stern fundamentalist roles they played.