18-year-old Noor wears her dark hair in braids with bangs. She’s a good student and volunteers at the hospital after school before going to work at her uncle’s liquor store. Noor’s uncle, who she calls Chachu, brought her to the United States when Noor was six years old. Her family and entire village were destroyed in an earthquake in Pakistan, and Chachu is the one who dug her out of the rubble.

Noor has few memories of her life in Pakistan and longs to know more about the family she lost. However, Chachu hates Pakistani culture and refuses to tell Noor about her roots. Even so, Noor finds a sense of home and family with Salahudin and his parents, Misbah and Toufiq. Throughout her childhood, she spends time at the motel Sal’s family owns, where Auntie Misbah makes her Pakistani foods, speaks to her in Punjabi, and encourages her in her Islamic faith. Noor and Sal develop a strong friendship, and although they are fighting when the novel begins, they gradually regain their closeness.

Noor develops romantic feelings for Salahudin and tries to push them away for most of the novel when she thinks Sal just wants to be friends. She loves

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