Nora Eldridge, a 37-year-old elementary school teacher in Cambridge, Massachusetts, who long ago abandoned her ambition to be a successful artist, has become the 'woman upstairs', a reliable friend and tidy neighbor always on the fringe of others' achievements. Then into her classroom walks Reza Shahid, a child who enchants as if from a fairy tale. When Reza is attacked by schoolyard bullies who call him a terrorist, Nora is drawn into the complex world of the Shahid family.