The wife of the ambassador of the fictional Middle Eastern nation of Wasabia gets drunk, steals her husband's car and drives out of the compound.

In anger over her friend's execution, Florence drafts a proposal to introduce a women's television network in the relatively liberal Matar.

The network airs shows like "One Thousand and One Mornings," which feature empowered female characters who nettle their oppressors and make fun of men.

Back in the United States, Florence discovers that her operation was not funded by the U.S. government at all, but rather by the Waldorf Group, a private equity firm which wanted to prevent extremism in Wasabia to help secure the flow of profits.

The novel is set in the fictional state of Matar, a somewhat liberal Middle Eastern sheikdom, similar to the real world Qatar.

Wasabia's medieval legal system, among other things, subjugates, humiliates and violates women, as well as executing them for such vices as flirting.

[5] Holland, Robert J. Zangas (another U.S. aid worker) and Salwa Oumashi, were the first civilians working for the occupation authority to be killed.