When Jude Wilson decides to travel halfway across the world to visit the graves of his childhood Boy Scout heroes, he unwittingly signs up for a lot more than he imagined. Growing up in the placid little Pacific Northwest town of Clarksville could never adequately prepare him for what he encounters in the vibrant, mercurial streets of Nairobi, where context defines meaning and words alone are not always sufficient to communicate across a cultural gap. He meets Qadir Mohamed—the affable manager at the youth hostel where he is staying—and a valuable friendship develops between two people from disparate backgrounds with seemingly little in common.

In Kenya, the past is never far away, though it is sometimes remembered differently by insiders. As a result, the unexamined triumphal legends from Jude's scouting days begin to unravel in the face of new discoveries. It is, however, a disastrous taxi ride and ensuing case of mistaken identity that emerge as the defining moments of this life-changing trip, leading him to stumble upon truths about himself that he was previously unaware of.