Barry Al-Fayeed is a California pediatrician who also happens to be the second son of a Middle Eastern dictator. Barry reluctantly agrees to return home with his American family for his nephew's wedding. Events thrust him into the complex and turbulent growing pains of a nation straining to break free from dictatorial rule.

When Barry's older brother, Jamal, the newly appointed President of Abbudin, is incapacitated, Barry must put his plans to return to America on hold. His life is further complicated, when his nephew's new bride is kidnapped by terrorists.

While Barry's decision to stay in Abbudin is met with mixed emotion, the discovery of new evidence connected to the attempted murder of Jamal threatens to drive a wedge between the two brothers.

Tensions boil as the 20th anniversary of the chemical attack ordered by Barry's father, President Khaled Al-Fayeed looms. Barry's plan to defuse the situation runs into heavy resistance. Meanwhile, Jamal struggles to regain confidence in the bedroom.

Jamal gets ready to throw down the gauntlet on the thousands of citizens gathered in the Plaza to protest his reign. Barry attempts to put together a summit in the hopes of avoiding any violence.

Barry convinces Jamal to meet with exiled opposition leader Sheik Rashid. But when the meeting takes a turn for the worse, Jamal is forced to make a difficult decision that will impact the lives of his family and his country forever.

Jamal is terrified to discover that Sheik Rashid may actually survive Jamal's brutal attack, while Amira's disclosure of a twenty year old secret leads Barry to question everything he's ever believed about his father.

Now that he has made the decision that Jamal leading Abuddin will never lead to peace while killing Sheik Rashid for Jamal in the process, Barry approaches Tucker for US support on the matter. Tucker's official line is that the US is not in the business of regime change, but unofficially does provide that support in the form of "coup planner" Lea Exley, who informs Barry that a coup needs to happen quickly before the secrets get out. Barry learns how easily those secrets do escape. He also finds that the most difficult obstacles in the plan are those that are closest ...

Barry still expects the coup to be bloodless, Jamal and Leila who will still live in luxury in exile after all is said and done. The first step still remains to remove Tariq from his position, which Tucker tells Barry he has three days to accomplish by making Jamal believe Tariq is the mastermind behind the coup. Tucker also arms Barry with a tool to accomplish this task. With all the possible problems in this mission, the biggest obstacles may be Leila, who is generally more astute and questioning than Jamal, and Molly, who may not be able to look Jamal and Leila in ...

On the verge of betraying and displacing Jamal, Barry receives troublesome news that threatens to destroy everything he's worked so hard for. Meanwhile, Jamal's rising suspicions lead him to question the loyalty of those closest to him.