The central theme of the book is a fictitious story behind the real-life aircraft crash which killed Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, president of Pakistan from 1977 to 1988, about which there are many conspiracy theories.

The story takes place in the months before the plane crash, jumping back and forth between Ali's revenge plans and his third-person observations of Zia's life.

Ali's revenge plot consists of stabbing Zia in the eye with his under-officer sword, a move he practices daily in secret.

While there, Ali listens to the screams of his tortured fellow prisoners and talks via a hole in the wall with the "Secretary General" who has been in solitary confinement there for nine years.

Ali eventually learns that his own father is the one responsible for turning Lahore Fort into a torture center ("Nice work, Dad," he responds).

Upon his arrival back at the Pakistani Air Force Academy, he learns that he has been chosen as part of the squad that will perform a silent drill salute for Zia.

The ISI with its government agent systems and the measure of financing makes General Akhtar an exceptionally well-off and dangerous man.

Much time is spent discussing the joint US-Pakistan effort to support Afghan mujahideen guerilla fighters against Soviet forces in the 1980s.

"[1] Readers are reminded that the US enthusiastically collaborated with General Zia to finance, train, and supply the Afghan mujahideen in their insurgency.

By propping up an unhinged dictator like Zia and conspiring with violent radicals, Hanif believes that the U.S. demonstrates that it will manipulate any weaker actor it can into being a pawn in their foreign policy strategy.

Throughout the book, Zia remains convinced he is guided by Allah and feels he is receiving ominous messages straight out of the Quran predicting his demise.

[4] The Guardian described the novel as "woven in language as explosive as the mangoes themselves, is wickedly cynical and reveals layers of outrageous – and plausible – corruption.