Nao­mi Roth is the first female pres­i­dent of Web­ster Col­lege, a once-con­ser­v­a­tive school now known for pro­duc­ing fired-up pro­gres­sive grad­u­ates. So Nao­mi isn’t sur­prised or undu­ly alarmed when Web­ster stu­dents begin the fall semes­ter with an out­door encamp­ment around ​“The Stump”, a tra­di­tion­al cam­pus gath­er­ing place for gen­er­a­tions of stu­dent activists, to protest a pop­u­lar pro­fes­sor’s denial of tenure. A for­mer stu­dent rad­i­cal her­self, Nao­mi admires the pro­tes­tors’ pas­sion, espe­cial­ly when her own daugh­ter Han­nah joins their ranks. Then Omar Khay­al, a charis­mat­ic Pales­tin­ian stu­dent with a dev­as­tat­ing per­son­al his­to­ry, emerges as the group’s leader and the demon­stra­tion begins to con­sume Naomi’s life, desta­bi­liz­ing Web­ster Col­lege from the inside out. As the cri­sis slips beyond her con­trol, Nao­mi must take increas­ing­ly des­per­ate mea­sures to pro­tect her friends, col­leagues, and fam­i­ly from an unknow­able adver­sary. Touch­ing on some of the most top­i­cal and con­tro­ver­sial con­cerns at the heart of our soci­ety, this riv­et­ing nov­el exam­ines the fragili­ty that lies behind who we think we are and what we think we believe.