In contemporary Haiti, 17-year-old Anna Nasser is seemingly kidnapped. Her father, a wealthy businessman of Lebanese descent and owner of the Beirut Supermarket named Samir Nasser, is an overbearing academic disciplinarian with dreams of his daughter attending Brown University and becoming a brain surgeon. The night before her advanced placement BC calculus exam, Anna attends a high profile illicit party where she meets a boy who says he is a medical student from Miami, Florida visiting relatives who live in Haiti. Anna goes home with the boy—home in his case is the Wyclef Jean suite at the Hotel Montana, a high-class room far removed from the lives of average Haitians. The next morning, the boy offers Anna amphetamine salts. Anna quickly becomes addicted to the drugs. In between his studies, the boy makes regular trips from Florida to Haiti to meet Anna. Together, at the hotel, they study, swim, and have sex regularly. One day, the boy tells Anna he is in trouble. He and Anna plot to hold Anna for ransom and demand $200,000 from Anna's father—and pin the crime on a Canadian boy named Leblanc. Anna's father gets a call on the phone while he is in bed with his lover, asking for $200,000 in ransom for Anna's safety. Samir gives the kidnapper (the boy from Miami) the money, and rumors spread that it was a local gang that orchestrated the kidnapping. Anna returns home naked except for a sheet she stole. The boy from Miami takes off with $10,000 in cash he made from the kidnapping plot with Anna. The boy's money is confiscated at the airport but he is not arrested. Samir turns to alcohol in the aftermath of the kidnapping plot, not sure how to process his daughter's betrayal. Rather than dream of sending her to Brown, Samir becomes overly protective of Anna and keeps her close.