Three generations of Palestinian-American women in contemporary Brooklyn are torn by individual desire, educational ambitions, a devastating tragedy and the strict mores of traditional Arab culture.

Isra Shadi, a twenty-one-year-old woman of mixed Palestinian and white descent, lives in California with her paternal amu (uncle), amtu (aunt), and cousins after the death of her mother and abandonment by her father at a young age. Ever the outcast in her amu and amtu's household, they eagerly encourage Isra to marry and leave. After rejecting a string of undesirable suitors, she marries Yusef, an old love from her past. In Amreekiya, author Lena...

A Brooklyn woman raised in a conservative and volatile Palestinian family marries a charming entrepreneur who moves her to the suburbs and allows her to follow her dreams of an art degree, yet still feels dissatisfied with her life.