The book starts with Sayyid Qutb, an Egyptian religious scholar who visited the United States in the late 1940s and returned to his home to become an anti-West Islamist and eventually a martyr for his beliefs.

Lawrence Wright also describes in detail some of the Americans involved in counter-terrorism, in particular Richard A. Clarke, chief counter-terrorism adviser on the U.S. National Security Council; Michael Scheuer, head of the CIA's counterterrorist Alec Station; and John P. O'Neill, an assistant deputy director of investigation for the FBI, who served as America's top bin Laden hunter until his retirement from the FBI in August 2001, after which he worked as head of security at the World Trade Center, where he died in the 9/11 attacks.

The book also describes some of the problems associated with the lack of cooperation between the FBI, the CIA, and other U.S. government organizations that prevented them from uncovering the 9/11 plot in time.

[citation needed] According to Wright, Osama bin Laden, at a wedding before the 9/11 attacks, quoted the line, repeating it three times: "Wherever you are, death will find you, even if you are in lofty[failed verification (See discussion.)]

towers" (أينما تكونوا يدرككم الموت ولو كنتم في بروج مشيدة, 'aynamā takūnū yadrikkumu l-mawtu wa-law kuntum fī burūjin mušayyadatin)[failed verification (See discussion.)].