The plot revolves around events after the September 11 attacks when a Muslim architect wins a blind contest to design a Ground Zero Memorial.

Inspired by the memoir by an American doctor who built a local women's clinic in rural Afghanistan, she decides to visit that same remote village to make use of her language skills and studies in anthropology in order to give further support to the project.

While living with a local family she gradually realizes the falsehoods contained in the memoir while also coming to understand the power structures in the village and the influence of the U.S. Army on the region.

Waldman depicts not only the people and customs of Afghanistan – which she herself experienced first-hand in 2001 as a journalist for the New York Times – but also the growing self-awareness of her protagonist against a backdrop of a village caught between Afghani resistance fighters and an American military unit determined to expand its influence over the region.

"[7] The reviewer for The New York Times pointed out problems in the narrative voice, but noted that "it's easy to overlook these flaws because the book's moral questions feel so urgent.