In Book 1, The Syrian Virgin, Anissa Toma, is a 16-year-old girl living in the city of Homs, as the Syrian Civil War rages. Anissa’s father, Youssef, is a hospital doctor and businessman, as well as a leader of the local Christian community. As Islamist fighters increasingly terrorize the Christian minority in Homs, Youssef realizes that he must do whatever he can to protect his four children. After Christmas 2011, he sends Anissa’s older sister and younger brother to stay with their uncle in the northern Syrian city of Raqqa, which is far safer. Anissa’s older brother will stay in Homs to help their parents manage the family pharmacy and medical device business, and Anissa, who is academically gifted, will relocate to New York and stay with her uncle who lives there, after Youssef uses his professional contacts to secure a Canadian visa for her.
During their last hours together, Youssef asks his daughter for a solemn promise: fulfill your personal potential and help our persecuted community. Anissa vows to do this, and, after packing all of her things, takes the family dog out to the front yard one last time. But her world shatters when five armed Islamists suddenly show up at her house to punish her father’s decision to fire a doctor who had been purloining supplies from Youssef’s hospital for their benefit. After seriously injuring her father in a shootout that leaves Anissa’s dog dead, the gunmen present Youssef with a stark choice: renounce the Christian faith and become a Muslim, or die.
As a proud man and one of the leaders of the Homs Christian community, he refuses their demand that he convert to Islam. Horrific carnage ensues. Anissa narrowly escapes the murderous rampage by fleeing through the backdoor, across their backyard, and over a fence to the house of Mohammed, who is her neighbor, a trusted family friend, and a Sunni Muslim.
A few days later, with Mohammed’s help, Anissa is able to get past Sunni rebel checkpoints to her flight departing from Damascus. Her uncle in NY picks her up from the Montreal airport, and then drives her across the US-Canada border, back to his home in NY, where she must restart her young life while seeking asylum. Traumatized and devastated, Anissa tries to find the will to go on, even though all that remains of her family is her host uncle and cousins in NY, and her older sister, younger brother and other uncle in Raqqa.
During her last year and a half of high school, Anissa focuses on adjusting to life in a new country, while overcoming the traumas she recently endured with the help of her therapist, Monique. As part of her strategy for coping with the horrific loss of her parents and older brother, Anissa lies to everyone (except her therapist) about how her parents died, claiming they were all killed in a car crash, which gives them a “more normal” death. She suffers from horrible nightmares about her trauma in Syria but can manage them in part with her nightly ritual of whispering to her imaginary parents and convincing them not to get into the car that will end up crashing. Anissa also intensively pursues martial arts and running to improve her confidence and mood.
While searching for a place where she can study self-defense with other Mideast Christians, Anissa meets Michael Kassab on Facebook. She quickly develops a crush on Michael, who is a twenty-six-year-old doctoral student at Columbia University, and a political activist fighting for the rights, security, and dignity of Mideast Christians facing Islamist persecution.
Michael is helpful to Anissa but never shows any romantic interest in her, so Monique eventually advises her to stop trying to maintain her Facebook relationship with Michael. Anissa follows her therapist’s advice and focuses on self-healing and completing her last year of high school. She keeps a diary in an effort to battle the demons that haunt her, and it is through this personal record that she tells her story. Anissa struggles with depression and nightmares related to her trauma and Monique tries to help her manage PTSD. Anissa resists the temptation to take her own life so that she can honor the promise that she made to her father in their very last conversation. Not only does her vow sustain her will to live, but it also fuels her drive to succeed academically. Her hard work and unusual intellect secure her a full-merit scholarship at Columbia University, which she enters at the age of eighteen.
During her first semester, Anissa stays focused on her studies but is regularly reminded of how different her concerns are from those of her classmates. They escape their academic pressures by indulging in campus parties, carefree fun, drinking, and dating. But Anissa clings to her conservative attitudes towards sex and, when she’s not studying, remains anxious about the situation in Syria – especially in Raqqa, where her surviving family lives under increasingly perilous conditions. She resolves to become politically involved, during her second semester, with the Mideast Christian Association (MCA), the non-profit that Michael founded and leads.
On the first day of her spring semester classes, Anissa goes to a campus rally organized by the MCA, where she meets her longtime Facebook crush in person for the first time. Hoping to impress Michael while helping the cause by soliciting donations and petition signatures, Anissa approaches a stylishly dressed man in his late thirties, just as he is about to make a phone call, but he brusquely rebuffs her request. Michael resentfully points out that he is the wealthiest man associated with the university but never donates anything or shows any other form of support.
After the MCA rally, Anissa heads to the first lecture of her Psychology & Markets course, only to learn that her new professor is the same man who just rejected her solicitation: Professor Julien Morales. She awkwardly avoids his gaze throughout his introduction to the class, and tries to remain unnoticed for the next few lectures. At one point, Julien announces that the three students with the highest midterm exam results will be invited to a special office tour of his twenty billion-dollar hedge fund, JMAT. He notes that most of the students selected in the past have gone on to secure high-paying jobs with his prestigious fund. Anissa suddenly starts to dream big, and is excited by the rare opportunity to help herself (and eventually her community), and resolves to be among the top three students in the class.
A few days later, she sees her professor speaking on a Spanish-language financial news program on TV while helping Michael with some MCA-related tasks. Anissa learns that Michael also speaks Spanish, in addition to her native Arabic and several other Mideast languages. She realizes that she is drawn to both men for different reasons, but – after discovering that Michael actually has a girlfriend – she tries to distance herself from him, as her therapist advises.
Meanwhile, Julien continues to receive unwanted messages from one of his ex-lovers, threatening to publicly shame him if he doesn’t pay her a substantial “breakup fee.” Julien refuses to do so on principle, but realizes that his playboy lifestyle may have gotten too reckless and decides that he needs to start seeing a shrink about that issue and his recurring nightmares.
Anissa’s friend Maya, who was in Julien’s class the year before, confirms that his course is very difficult and admits that she received a poor grade in his class, but adds that she gained something far more valuable than a good grade: Julien’s friendship and regular invitations to his VIP parties, which are attended by the political and financial elite, and some of the city’s most eligible bachelors. Anissa is intrigued when Maya suggests that she join her as a guest but Anissa declines the invitation, noting that she doesn’t want to show up at Julien’s home unannounced unless she’s already proven herself on his midterm exam.
Julien selects a young and sexy therapist, Lily, who eventually gets him to open up to her more than he has done with any prior therapist. He admits to Lily that he chose an attractive therapist in part because he needs to learn self-control, and what better way to do so than with someone to whom he is drawn and who can study his behavior as it goes astray? He also reveals that his estranged father is the principal cause of his nightmares but reveals little else about what took place during his troubled childhood.
Michael eventually breaks up with his girlfriend and starts to see Anissa more frequently. They grow closer while discussing his dream of founding a Mideast Christian state – an inspiring goal that makes her hopeful about someday protecting her beleaguered community. Michael asks Anissa to go ice skating with him on Valentine’s Day, and the two start dating.
A few days later, Anissa and Michael are again at an MCA rally, collecting donations and signatures despite the cold weather. As luck would have it, Julien again walks by them. This time, however, Julien stops and explains to Anissa his reasons for rarely getting involved with politics, but then takes out a $100 bill and hands it to Anissa, joking that they should buy an outdoor heater to keep themselves warm with it. Michael is amazed that Julien finally showed some generosity and realizes that it’s entirely thanks to Anissa’s spell over the man.
Anissa continues to worry about the safety of her siblings and uncle in Raqqa, where ISIS has taken over and imposed Sharia law, persecuting Christians and other religious minorities. But she withdraws from world events and everyone around her in order to focus intently on midterms – especially the exam for Julien’s class, which she prepares the most for, at the expense of her other classes. Her efforts pay off when she learns that she has received the highest grade in the class and secured for herself an office tour of Julien’s hedge fund.
Julien’s therapist finally gets him to share something he’s never told anyone else: a detailed account of his horrific nightmares. They involve his bed blanket transforming into hooks or blades that cut him open to the point that he begins drowning in his own blood, until he throws the covers to the floor gasping for air. He eventually also reveals that he is a strict vegetarian after being traumatized at a young age when watching his father work as a butcher. Julien’s love of animals is also apparent from the lengths to which he goes to care for and heal Icarus, the sparrow that he accidentally stepped on when getting out of his car once and subsequently adopted as a pet.
Anissa goes on the tour of JMAT and is dazzled by the stunning offices full of alluring possibilities that, until that moment, had seemed so removed from her reality as a refugee: wealth, abundance, prestige, success. But when she shows up late to the MCA meeting that night and shares her excitement about the JMAT office tour, Michael clearly resents everything that Julien represents and fears that Anissa could end up forgetting her ideals and values if she is seduced into pursuing some materialistic American Dream. She and Michael have their first quarrel, which is further aggravated by Anissa’s jealous suspicions that Michael has not completely cut ties with his last girlfriend.
Meanwhile, Julien grows increasingly intrigued by Anissa, and – realizing that it would be risky and inappropriate to pursue her in any way – he throws a small VIP party at his triplex penthouse (occupying the 63rd through the 65th floors) in the hope of finding himself a new crush, to help him take his mind off of Anissa. To that end, he asks Maya to bring a young, smart beauty with her to his party. Much to his surprise, she shows up with Anissa, who – after her stellar exam performance – is no longer wary of showing up uninvited.
But Anissa, who has since made up with Michael (after he apologized and brought her a charming gift), goes out of her way to do as her boyfriend suggested: limit her interactions with Julien at his party, in order to set herself apart from the countless young women throwing themselves at the billionaire playboy. Michael convinces Anissa that if she plays her cards right with Julien, she will be uniquely positioned to help Middle East Christians by gaining the support of an extremely wealthy and well-connected benefactor.
Michael’s plan works and Anissa’s aloofness intensifies Julien’s budding fascination with her. To avoid revealing any of this interest to his current student, Julien plays it cool in class and pretends not to notice Anissa, who similarly seems indifferent towards her professor during the lectures that follow their party encounter.
But Julien is determined to get some quality time with Anissa, so he invites Maya to another party, and suggests that she bring Anissa again. This time at his party, Julien chats privately for a few minutes with Anissa and invites her out to dinner later that week.
The next day, at a political rally in Union Square for the protection of Mideast Christians, a counter-protest erupts and Michael comes to Anissa’s physical defense when she is accosted and threatened by three much bigger men. A trained martial arts fighter, Michael knocks out the biggest man in the group and the others cower away as he escorts Anissa away from the area. She ends up going back to his apartment, where they passionately kiss and Anissa reveals her breasts to a man for the first time in her sexually inexperienced life. But after Michael notices a scar on Anissa’s hip, they stop their heavy petting. She tells him that the mark is from what happened to her in Syria but prefers not to elaborate, having shared the details of her ordeal with no one besides her therapist. Anissa wants to explore their intimacy more, but Michael notes that he would rather take things slowly, given that she’s still a virgin and he’s about to leave for Syria on a dangerous mission for the MCA.
When Anissa tells Maya what happened with Michael, her more experienced friend tells her that Michael’s relationship with his last girlfriend might not be as finished as Anissa would like to think. They also discuss the whole question of giving one’s virginity to the right person. Anissa notes how freely and frivolously women in the USA seem to do so, particularly when drunken fraternity parties are involved. But Maya points out that some U.S. women have auctioned off their virginity for six-figure payments.
The next time Anissa speaks with Michael (over Skype, when he calls to let her know that he’s safely arrived in Syria), she confronts him about whether he still has any relationship with his ex-girlfriend. Michael responds by suggesting that he and Anissa keep their relationship light and open because he is too focused on the cause they both care so much about for him to be involved in anything very serious. He encourages her to cultivate her relationship with Julien, adding that the cause is much more important than any particular jealousies, and gaining Julien’s support is too important an opportunity for them to miss. But Michael emphasizes that he wants Anissa in his future and trusts her to stay true to that hope; it’s clear that Michael is torn about having Anissa charm Julien into being more supportive. Michael resents Julien’s materialistic values and views him as a romantic rival, even though the MCA desperately needs a wealthy supporter.
A few days later, Julien takes Anissa on their dinner date. They have a long and very open chat during their time together, covering everything from Anissa’s experiences in college, to the plight of her community, to the current geopolitics of the Middle East. He is more impressed than ever by her intellect and knowledge of topics about which he knows little. They also discuss how different her traditional and more conservative background is from the sexual mores of American culture, at which point she jokingly mentions that she would have premarital sex with someone who wasn’t going to become her husband only for a donation of ten million dollars to the MCA, the cause she holds dearest. Julien humorously congratulates Anissa on not undervaluing herself and – noting that Michael may still be in the picture – muses that the whole idea, albeit theoretical, seems to him like a philanthropic version of the Demi Moore film Indecent Proposal.
Anissa’s older sister (who is still staying with their uncle in Raqqa, Syria) shares some ominous news: they fear that a Christian who owes their uncle money may accuse them of blasphemy to the ISIS authorities, as a way to avoid his debt. She reports hearing that the man had befriended the Islamist authorities to avoid other debts in this manner, even though the other Christian creditors he accused of blasphemy all ended up dead. Anissa begs her sister not to lose hope, noting that Michael is well connected with key players in Syria and may be able to help them flee very soon.
A few days later, the mysterious consequences that Julien’s harassing ex-lover has been threatening are finally unveiled. She sold the shirtless selfies that Julien had sent her when they were dating (a few months earlier) to the New York tabloids, and Anissa’s professor is now the object of ridicule throughout all of the New York area, as his selfies are splashed across the front pages of the local papers. A man who was always associated with good judgment, prudence, class, and prestige now looks laughably undignified and even desperate. Later that day, when Anissa overhears some students mocking him just as Julien’s lecture ends, she tries to defend him, reminding them that everyone makes mistakes and that they shouldn’t judge so harshly a professor that everyone had loved and admired so much up until that point.
Full of shame, Julien slips away after class, clearly trying to avoid everyone as he makes his way back to his driver. But Anissa wants to comfort him and follows him until no one else is around to see her approach him. She tries to reassure him that the scandal hasn’t altered her view of him in any way. He wants to escape public view as soon as possible, and suggests that they speak in his car.
Anissa decides to join him for his ride to the Brooklyn Bridge, which she’s always wanted to visit. On the way there, they discuss the dinner they had together, and Julien eventually admits that he is struggling to keep their relationship strictly teacher/student, particularly because of her charm and exceptional intellect, and the unusual openness that her presence inspires in him. He confesses to her that he shares more with her than with many people he’s known for far longer.
On the other hand, his recent scandal is a painful reminder of how risky his adventures with women can be, although he notes that he strangely trusts her more than he can fully explain – in part because of her authenticity and refugee experience, which is so unlike the social-climbing, money-grubbers of whom he’s grown weary and wary. He also doesn’t want to break her heart but fears that such an outcome is inevitable, given his lousy track record with women and relationships generally. He concludes that the only way to have a sexual relationship where no one gets hurt is to keep their relationship strictly “transactional,” as she had jokingly mentioned when she said that it would take a ten-million-dollar donation for her to give her virginity to someone other than her future husband. Julien points out that, under such an arrangement, each person gains nothing more or less than what each expects: he would enjoy the taboo-filled thrill of sex with his current and much younger, virginal student, and she would secure a large donation for the MCA. Julien also notes that if it were really set up as a transaction, he would donate five million dollars before they have sex, and five million after.
But Julien adds that he has never had to pay for sex and refuses, on principle, to start now. He concludes the discussion by asking Anissa never to mention any formal arrangement again. Julien says that if he does decide to donate to the MCA, then it’s not to pressure her into having sex with him, but because he genuinely wants to support her cause, which he has come to respect and care about. And similarly, if Anissa ever decides to lose her virginity to him, then it should be because she deems him worthy enough to receive that honor, and not because of some obligation.
When they get to the Brooklyn Bridge, they get out of the car and walk towards the middle, as his driver waits for Julien’s call to pick them up nearby. On the bridge, Julien reveals the suicidal thoughts that he’s had on those occasions when he’s hit bottom, and describes the struggles he had with himself to stay on the bridge. He admits that the public humiliation following the photo scandal has brought him back to his nihilistic despair.
Julien walks Anissa back to the car and instructs his driver to take her back to her dorm at the Columbia University campus. He decides to return to the bridge, so that he can just think and be alone and contemplate his own life, the way he has on every other such despair-filled occasion.
A few days later, Julien never shows up to class. His social media accounts are all quiet and there is no way to reach him or any sign that he is alive. After nearly a week of this eerie silence, Anissa begins to worry that Julien has taken his own life.
She grows even more distraught when Michael, who’s still in Syria, misses their scheduled Skype call – after not communicating for several days either. She starts to fear that she has lost both men in her life. Hours after she was scheduled to speak with Michael on Skype, she receives an email indicating that both he and Julien are actually alive. The email is from Michael, and it congratulates her on a job well done: the MCA bank account just received a wire transfer of five million dollars. That is where book one ends.
NOTE: Due to space limitations, the above summary is highly condensed and not always in chronological order. For the full experience, with all of the drama and details, please read The Syrian Virgin.