This novel tracks the late adolescent an Islamic boy named Ahmad who becomes radicalized during the summer after high school graduation. Ahmad is raised by an artist of Irish ethnicity who had a romance with a now-absent foreign exchange student from Egypt. Their marriage dissolves when Ahmad is quite young, and Ahmad finds himself in a school that does not exemplify any values he respects. In particular, he dislikes the tendency of teachers not to stand up for any concrete beliefs and the fact that everyone there makes it through the day and resumes a different sort of life. Ahmad instead visits with a sheikh at the most obscure mosque in his town, New Prospect. When Ahmad began Arabic lessons at the age of eleven, there were other students, but by the time he reaches middle adolescence it is just Ahmad.
Ahmad's strong faith causes a divide between him and the others in his life, most of whom view beliefs as external ways to guide life as opposed to internal, moment-to-moment, consciousness. He cannot easily resolve his emotions toward a girl named Joryleen who shows him kindness; he rebuffs her gestures at friendship, then feels bad about his hurtful phrases.
Ahmad graduates high school and begins to deliver furniture for a living, much to the chagrin of his guidance counselor, Jack Levy. Over time, Ahmad accepts and even professes increasingly-radical viewpoints on the September 11th terrorist attacks and the concept of women as distracting whores. He spends time with a man named Charlie who is the nephew of Ahmad's boss at Excellency, the furniture store. Charlie reinforces Shaikh Rashid's teachings and leads Ahmad to consider taking drastic action against the society he observes as materialistic and distracted from the real questions of mankind by hurting its civilians.
Through a network of Jack's wife, Beth, and her sister Hermione, this plot is suspected by the State Department. The novel ends with a dramatic display as they try their best to prevent Ahmad from terrorism.
