Zou Lei is an undocumented immigrant from China who was coerced into working at a diner after being picked up by a caravan on the side of the road. She works with about a dozen other women, living in a motel and learning English through work and watching television. Even though her coworkers are also Chinese, they call her an “outsider” and socially isolate her because she is a Uighur—a member of a group of traditionally nomadic, Muslim peoples whose lands were absorbed by China as they seized control of the eastern part of Afghanistan. Zou Lei moves on to a higher-paying job, but she is quickly arrested by the police and taken to prison without knowing what she is being arrested for. In prison, Zou Lei feels increasingly alienated despite knowing that some of the other women in the prison were also arrested during an “immigration sweep.” Zou Lei discovers that she was arrested under the Patriot Act, a post-9/11 national security measure that allows police to arrest anyone they suspect of terrorism.

As she remains incarcerated, Zou Lei learns of the abuse that the female prisoners endure at the hands of the prison guards. Women are raped and threatened by the guards, and they are drugged and isolated when they speak up about the abuse.