Post-9/11 Syria is a conflicted place. No one is sure who to trust, who might be working for the government, or who might come to arrest you with no notice and seemingly no reason. Seventeen-year-old Nadia is conflicted as well, about her more Westernized friends and family members and the economic and social hardships her country is facing. Every day there is more news about bombings. Nadia and her cousins must be careful when they go out, because being caught without identification could have serious repercussions.

The one stable thing in Nadia's life is her devotion to Islam. She believes in a modern education and wants to go on to university to study medicine rather than marry young and raise a family immediately. By wearing the hijab and acting modestly, as she thinks a proper Muslim woman should, she believes she is living her life in the best way she can. All around her, however, people who share her ideas on Islam are being arrested, thrown in prison and tortured, including her cousin Fowzi. While other members of her family are focused on dismal job prospects, unhappy marriages and their potential for study in Switzerland, Nadia is looking for a way to avenge Fowzi's unlawful arrest and stand up for Muslims all over Syria. 

Nadia's opportunity comes in the form of a young man named Walid, who is sympathetic to Nadia's more fundamentalist Muslim beliefs. He leaves her mysterious notes, organizing their rendezvous all over Damascus. Even though they must talk in secret and often don't get much time to speak, Nadia quickly falls for Walid's ideas, more like her own than her family's. Walid, like Nadia, is sure that America is full of many evil, materialistic people who believe their television sets and Pepsis are more important than tolerance and equality.

Although her cousin Bassam, back in Syria after years in America, tells her otherwise, Nadia can't believe his stories. She knows she has to take it upon herself to stand up for the Muslims of Syria, and is willing to do so in one of the most extreme ways possible. As she assembles a list of goods dictated by Walid, Nadia is sure she's doing what is right. But will she have the strength to follow the jihad plan to the end?

Although Nadia's religion, home and way of life may be something you've never experienced firsthand, or even read about, you will find Nadia to be a compelling, multifaceted character. She always believes that she is doing the right thing, and even when met with opposition from her cousins about her religious beliefs, she holds her ideals tightly, trusting that Islam is the way for her family members to achieve happiness and a good life. The important topics of life in the modern Middle East and Islamic fundamentalism are brought to light in a detailed narrative that will make you think about what it means to stand up for what you believe in.