The narrator describes a woman named Zara Davies and how he meets her at Clark House at Amherst College. The class they share is called Punishment, Politics, and Culture. The narrator had served in Iraq for thirteen months and “figured I’d go learn about punishment” (169). He and Zara are the only nonwhite students in the class. She is immediately aggressive and assertive when other students say things she disagrees with. The narrator feels less certain: “The only thing I felt like I really had on these kids was the knowledge of just how nasty and awful humans are” (169). He does not understand the mystique that veterans are given. He enjoys the debates he has with Zara, who he says can see through him.

Months after the class ends, she seeks him out. She has converted to Islam and is now dressed plainly, which disappoints him. She wants him to be honest and tell her what is really happening in Iraq. When she asks him how he can kill his own people, he laughs. He is not Muslim but a Coptic Christian. Muslims hate his religion, and he tells her that this means “I can kill Muslims as much as I like” (174).