At a cafe table in Lahore, a bearded Pakistani man converses with a suspicious, and possibly armed. American stranger. He begins the tale that has brought them to this fateful meeting. Changez is living an immigrant's dream of America. At the top of his class at Princeton, he is snapped up by an elite firm that specializes in the valuation of companies ripe for acquisition. He thrives on the energy of New York. But in the wake of September 11, he finds his position in his adopted city suddenly overturned. And Changez's identity is in seismic shift as well, unearthing allegiances more fundamental than money, power, and perhaps even love.