Nwafor Obiako, the narrator, is a Nigerian citizen, of Igbo extraction. At the beginning of his story, in December 1990, he has been in the United States for about nine years, and had taken his Sociology degree in 1986. On a visit to Nigeria, two years later, he is persuaded to let his mother and his uncle search for a suitable girl for him to marry. When they find one, he travels to Nigeria to meet her. Her name is Chigozie Nwokoye. Nwafor and Chigozie do a traditional – as well as a registry – marriage, and he returns to the United States. Months later, she joins him there. The story recounts the interactions between them and Nwafor’s friends: Erwin Clark, an African-American; Ben Ugonna, Nwafor’s friend from their high school years in Nigeria, and Ben’s wife Josephine. A chance and, as it turns out, momentous encounter between this group of friends and one Sylvester Onwurah and his girl-friend Juliet, sets in motion a sequence of events that sees Chigozie employed as a pianist for a night-club music band, an ugly fracas on the dance floor during an annual banquet of the Igbo Union of New Jersey, and a death that brings the police into their lives. Chigozie eventually gets what she wants above all else: a Church wedding. But Nwafor’s past catches up with him when a visitor from his past – Deidre, an old girl-friend – ruins the wedding celebrations for everybody. Which leaves Nwafor, Chigozie and Deidre seeking ways to bring some order into their convoluted lives.