The story begins in the spring of 2016. An act of vandalism has been perpetrated on a middle-aged Muslim woman's home in a gated community in Allentown, Pennsylvania. The woman's story is then told in flashback as she confides in her sympathetic neighbor about her days at a state university in New Jersey. There, in the year 2000, she meets an eclectic group of Muslim students. Socially awkward, she has always felt like an outsider, so she is ecstatic about joining the group, believing that the religious and cultural experiences she shares with these friends will finally bring her acceptance. However, she soon realizes that she may be destined to feel like an outsider even among people of her own religion. After the tragic September 11 attacks, through self-examination and service to others, she eventually shrugs off her habit of self-pity and begins to develop self-confidence. But it is a hate-fueled assault on a close Muslim friend that leads her to her true calling-promoting tolerance.