Attending high school in 1950s suburban Los Angeles, Lois Wendland (now Lois Banner) and Fran Huneke (now Noura Durkee) had been best friends, with their minds on books and boys. But while Banner became an academic feminist, Fran converted to Islam and moved to Egypt. Forty years later, Banner sought out her lost friend, hoping to understand why they had taken such different paths in life.

Banner charts the trajectories of their diverging lives. Her search for clues to the origins of their opposing choices takes her to Los Angeles, Alaska, New York, New Mexico, and to Alexandria, Egypt, where Fran re-creates the key moments of her life. As Banner finished her Ph.D. in history at Columbia University and became swept up in the beginnings of academic feminism, Fran embarked on her own journey, joining the Lama Foundation, a spiritual community in New Mexico, and eventually converting to Islam.

Ultimately, however, it is in childhood that Banner finds the roots of their differences. She uncovers the importance of female role models, showing how the death of her own mother, and the tremendous strength and influence of Fran's, sowed the seeds of their disparate lives.