Fourteen-year-old Aarash Husayni is starting his freshman year at Freemont Central High School, and even though he has been in the United States for six years he still feels like an outsider and mostly he tries to keep his head down and avoid the bullies; so when his fifteen-year-old cousin Ferhana and her friend Anton persuade him to join the wrestling team it is a big step--but his chief tormentor is also on the team, and Aarash has a choice: quit...

Twelve-year-old Ariana, a tomboy, and her ladylike cousin Laila, recently arrived from Afghanistan, do not get along but they pull together when a rival Afghani grocery store opens, rekindling an old family feud and threatening their family's livelihood.