Amal Mohamed Nasrullah Abdel-Hakim is a sixteen-year-old girl who is at the crossroads of complicated cultural dynamics. She is a Muslim from Palestine whose family relocated to Australia. Even among her family, she stands out; her features are fair, and her eyes are hazel. She tells us in the prose that when she was growing up, her teachers thought she was mentally handicapped because she struggled to remember how to spell her own name.
That was back during her time in Catholic school where she stood out for other obvious reasons—like her cultural dress which made her religion quite obviously different than Catholic Christianity. After that culturally challenging experience, she reports going to an Islamic college for middle school called Hidaya. At home, she feels like the bane of her parents' existence. Although she is different, she is still deeply pious in her religious beliefs, and she honors her elders and keeps the pillars of Islam. Then one day, she realizes that her friend from high school is slowly becoming something more than a friend. At a get-together with her friends, her crush, Adam Keane, goes in for a kiss. They know each other from chemistry class, and she connects with him because their lives are challenging. He has a painful relationship to his mother, and all in all, Amal finds his candid friendship with her attractive. While flirting at the party, Adam leans in for a kiss, but Amal decides to stay true to her religious morality, and she denies the kiss.
Shortly thereafter, Leila Okulgen runs away from home. She is one of Amal's closest friends and another Muslim, from Turkey in fact. Her parents believe that her decision to pursue an education and career is unfitting for a woman, and eventually the dysfunction in their home leads to Leila leaving. The last fight included an attempt to make Leila marry against her will. To Amal, the friendship is very dear; they are the only girls in their friend group who always wear their hijab, and they identify closely. In the quest to find Leila, Amal and Adam rekindle their relationship, this time without the attempts at physical intimacy.
