Nora Guerraoui is the central figure in the novel. She is the daughter of a family of Moroccan immigrants and the first in her family to be born in the United States. Nora has darker skin than her sister and faces more racism than Salma. When she travels back to Morocco, she is made to feel American. Nora’s race and her cultural upbringing mean that she never quite feels as though she belongs in any one place. Her life becomes a search for meaning and an attempt to find a home in a world which seems unsuited for her presence.

Music allows Nora to express herself. She has experienced synesthesia from a young age and is able to experience music and sound as colors. She combines this unique understanding of music with nostalgia from her past, such as the time she saw acrobats perform in Marrakesh. Nora experiences music in a singular fashion so her expression of music becomes singular. She struggles to gain popularity, relevancy, or attention with her deeply personal pieces and the constant rejections from music institutions add to the sense that she exists on the periphery of society.

Nora takes after her father in many ways.