Michael's parents are leaders of a new anti-immigrant political party called Aussie Values which is trying to halt the flood of refugees from the Middle East; Mina fled Afghanistan with her family ten years ago, and just wants to concentrate on fitting in and getting into college--but the mutual attraction they feel demands that they come to terms with their family's concerns and decide where they stand in the ugly anti-Muslim politics of the time. Michael...

Dawn, a California teen who has run away to New York, tries to contact her foster mother Louise, a Red Cross doctor in Pakistan, following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and instead reaches Louise's assistant, Johar, a refugee from Afghanistan, and the two form a bond that gives them both hope and courage to face the future.