As Ro and Nuri pursue their quest for an Islamic booklet that supports ijtihad, or a revision of strict Muslim laws and codes of conduct, we follow them to Cairo, Aswan, Aqaba, Petra, and finally back to Kamyonistan near Damascus. This is the truck stop community that is their true home - their jannat al-ardh or earthly paradise. But the relationship between Ro, the English teenager, and his young Arab friend, Nuri, is not unnoticed by a fundamentalist spy. Having shaken off the two-faced Omar, Ro comes face to face with twin tragedies, first when Kamyonistan is rocked by an earth tremor, and secondly when a thoroughbred white camel arrives, heralding a sadness that goes far deeper for Ro and his friends.