Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussions of domestic abuse.

Nidali is the protagonist, and the story is largely told through her first-person perspective. Due to her multicultural background and the turbulence of her adolescence, Nidali struggles to form a strong sense of identity and belonging. She is Egyptian, Palestinian, and Greek, and during the novel she moves between Boston, Kuwait, Egypt, and Texas. She describes herself as light-skinned, especially in comparison to her mother. Sometimes she feels like she is not Palestinian “enough,” although at other times, she is teased for her Palestinian heritage.

While her family makes several moves during her childhood, she finds it most difficult to transition to life in America. When moving within the Middle East, Nidali manages to find some commonalities with the local cultures, but American culture comes as a shock to her. Throughout her childhood, her father emphasizes—sometimes violently—the importance of education and obedient behavior. As a student in Kuwait and Egypt, Nidali excels, but in America, her studiousness, strict curfew, and academic manner of speaking makes her stand out as awkward in comparison to the other students.

Nidali is characterized as a mixture of studious and compliant and rebellious and defiant.