The movie presents a view of post-September 11, 2001 attacks United States as seen through the eyes of Lana (Williams), an American girl who has lived in Africa and the Middle East for years with her missionary parents. She is returning from a long trip to the West Bank. In Los Angeles, she works at a homeless mission and looks up her only living relative in the US, her late mother's brother, Paul (Diehl). He is a paranoid Vietnam War veteran who drives around filming and spying on Arabs and people with Arab features. Lana, in contrast, leans toward anti-war convictions and has been changed by her experiences abroad, so feels outside American culture.