How easy it was to lie to strangers, to create with strangers the versions of our lives we imagined. Ifemelu and Obinze are young and in love when they depart military-ruled Nigeria.

Self-assured Ifemelu heads for America. But quiet, thoughtful Obinze finds post-9/11 America closed to him, and plunges into a dangerous undocumented life in London. Fifteen years later, they reunite in a newly democratic Nigeria, and reignite their passion - for each other and for their homeland.