Summary

In Chapter 1, the first-person narrator, Layla Amin, considers whether or not to visit her boyfriend, David, so close to curfew. The whole town is at a book burning. Given the event, she reflects on the past versus the present. The country has been in an increasing state of upheaval. Cultural and political changes have become increasingly exclusionary towards Muslims.

Though she knows her parents will be furious, she sneaks out of the house. She and David meet in his neighbors' pool house. His parents do not approve of their relationship; neither did the school. They suspended Layla, but not David, when they saw the two kissing. Layla's father withdrew her from, afraid their punishments would become more hostile towards all Muslim students.

Whenever Layla is with David, she feels she is living in the past, the Then. She has always liked him because...