The book opens on a soccer field in Clarkston, Georgia, where Luma al-Mufleh is coaching a soccer team called the Fugees, made up entirely of refugee children. The Fugees play a beautiful game of soccer, winning 9-2. This is the first game that Warren St. John ever sees the Fugees play. Though he is impressed by the team, he senses tension between the players and their coach. More than anything, he is amazed by the friendship that has sprung up among kids of many different nationalities and religions.
St. John flashes back to Luma’s childhood. Luma is born in Amman, Jordan to a wealthy family. She attends the American Community School in Amman and quickly discovers her natural athletic ability. She stands out to her coaches, particularly Rhonda Brown, who coaches volleyball. Brown is hard on her players, expecting them to be on time, work hard, focus, and improve. She knows that she is demanding and that players may not like her, but hopes they see their own improvement.
After Luma attends college in the U.S., she feels that Jordan is too restrictive on girls and moves to the U.S. permanently, cutting ties with her family in the process. She moves to Atlanta and coaches a girls’ team at a local YMCA, and starts a café called Ashton’s. She coaches the girls’ team in the model of Coach Brown: she is very demanding but earns their respect and helps the team improve.
Beatrice Ziaty and her sons Jeremiah, Mandela, and Darlington escape civil war between ethnic groups in Liberia in 1997, after witnessing the murder of her husband. The family flees to a refugee camp, resettling in Clarkston, Georgia. Soon after arriving, Beatrice is mugged on the street, making her anxious about leaving her children and going to work. She instructs them to stay inside whenever she is not there.
Clarkston is a popular town for resettlement agencies, due to its proximity to Atlanta and its cheap housing. Between 1980 and 2000, Clarkston’s population dramatically shifts so that one third of the population is foreign born. Many conservative white residents who live in Clarkston are put off by the arrival of these refugees. They elect a mayor, Lee Swaney, who bills himself as a champion of “old Clarkston.” Many refugees in the town feel unwelcome by longtime residents and are discriminated against by the police.
One day, while driving outside Atlanta, Luma notices boys of a variety of ethnicities playing soccer, and she joins in a game. She gets to know the boys over the course of a few months and decides to start a free program for refugee children. Many players try out, including Jeremiah Ziaty, who is eager to escape his apartment. Beatrice worries about his safety, but Luma assures that she will take care of Jeremiah like he is her child.
During her first season, Luma notices that many of the boys lack basic education, and so she also starts a tutoring program alongside the soccer practices and makes the sessions mandatory for her players. She also notices that the boys divide among ethnic or language lines during drills, and that there is a lot of underlying racism in how they treat each other. Meanwhile, she starts to get to know the boys’ families, helping them adjust to life in America. She translates documents and speaks with teachers and social workers. As she devotes more and more time to the Fugees, she decides to close Ashton’s and quit coaching at the YMCA. She devotes all of her time to the Fugees.
The next year, Bien Ntwari and his family arrive in Clarkston, having fled Burundi after a civil war between the Hutu and Tutsi ethnic groups. On Bien’s first day in Clarkston, he meets Grace Balegamire, who is from the Congo and speaks Swahili like Bien. Grace introduces Bien to the Fugees in the middle of their season. Luma allows Bien to join practices, knowing that the Fugees are a helpful resource to new kids. At the same time, new kids change the balance of the teams, and she finds that she constantly has to make sure that when the boys get into groups for drills, they play with kids from other regions and backgrounds. But when she is able to get talented kids to play on the oldest Fugees team (the Under Seventeens) to cooperate instead of compete with each other, they go undefeated.
In spring 2006, relations between the YMCA (which is sponsoring Luma’s use of their field) and the Clarkston Community Center (which owns the field) deteriorate, and the Fugees are kicked off of their field. The Y finds a new field behind Indian Creek Elementary School, but it is covered in gravel and broken glass. Luma is furious, but finds she has no alternative but to play there next season.
In the 2006 season, Luma is coaching three Fugees teams: first, the Under Seventeens, who are the most mature and largely take care of themselves. She also coaches the Under Thirteens, who are the youngest and the most adaptable to her harsh rules. The Under Fifteens are the most troublesome and often disobey Luma. One talented player, Prince, skips tutoring and undermines Luma’s authority, which causes others to follow suit. When Luma announces a rule that the players’ hair has to be short (as long hair implies gang affiliations), he refuses, and she kicks him off the team.
In one game early in the season, the Under Fifteens arrive two players short—they missed the bus. Luma is furious, and even though Mandela Ziaty convinces St. John to drive back and pick up other players, she refuses to coach them. The Fugees lose the game 7-2. Luma announces that she is canceling the Under Fifteens season that year.
This decision is tough on Kanue Biah, a Liberian player who had arrived two years earlier and had completely bought into Luma’s system. He lives with his uncle, who works most of the day and is only home for four hours at a time, and so the team has become like his family. Kanue and Mandela and another player, Natnael, convince Luma to hold a second round of tryouts. She agrees to restart the team but is worried they will have a terrible season now that they have a team of mostly new players. But miraculously, at their first game, the Fifteens win 4-2.
The next day, a boy who had been practicing with the Under Fifteens, Tito, is shot in the face after pretending to be in a gang. He survives, but Luma kicks him off the team, worried that the gang might try to retaliate, and she wants to keep her boys safe. She helps the boys come up with strategies on how best to avoid gangs.
Meanwhile, Luma has grown sick of the field at Indian Creek, which is not a healthy environment for her players, and is open to anyone walking through it. She pleads her case to the Clarkston City Council. At first they are reluctant, but Mayor Swaney convinces them to allow her to use a field at Armistead Park on a six-month trial basis. The new field is beautiful, covered in grass, and fenced off from visitors.
St. John tells the story of another Fugee, Qendrim Bushi, who was forced out of his home in Kosovo by conflict between a Serbian Yugoslav army and the Kosovo Liberation Army. They were made to leave everything behind, then walked for two days to a Macedonian refugee camp before moving to the United States.
While the Under Fifteens struggle, the Under Thirteens start to play better and better. They create inside jokes and are able to come back in a game they’re losing 1-0, showing their determination to win. Luma also starts to discover more and more of her players’ strengths in games—particularly those of Robin and Idwar Dikori, two brothers who had recently arrived from Sudan and lost their mother and sisters in a car accident shortly after arriving in the United States.
Meanwhile, the Fifteens are still having problems. Mandela, who was upset when Prince and then another Liberian player named Fornatee left the team, grows more and more moody. He snaps at other teammates when they make mistakes and refuses to pass the ball. Ultimately, Luma feels she has to kick him out of the program for the good of the team as a whole, even though she is very close with his mother and brothers.
One day, when Luma sets out behind the bus for an Under Thirteens game, she is pulled over by the police for a tail light. The policeman says her license has been suspended, though Luma doesn’t know why, and she is arrested. She spends the day in jail, while the Under Thirteens play (and lose) their game. Tracy Ediger, who helps Luma with the Fugees, is able to bail her out, and Luma apologizes to the boys for missing the game.
The Fifteens lose their final game 3-1 after a poor season. Luma is serious, saying that they will simply have to continue to follow her rules and her way if they want to continue. Kanue and Natnael are upset but know they will simply have to work harder next season. The Thirteens, on the other hand, have had a good season. On their final regular season game, they pray together—both Christian and Muslim prayers—and are able to win 2-1 to finish third in their division. As a reward, Luma takes them to play in the Tornado Cup. They are almost able to make it to the finals, but they tie their final game, and because of tournament rules they do not advance. Luma is frustrated that they gave up a lead, and gives them a harsh message, saying they didn’t play their best.
Still, after Christmas Luma plans to take the Under Thirteens and Fifteens to a tournament, and the boys help raise the money to go by washing cars and raking leaves. But then, Mayor Swaney sends the team a letter which essentially says that the Fugees can no longer play on Armistead park. Luma is upset and tries to fight the baseless decision, but in the meantime she has to find another field.
In the epilogue, St. John describes some events following this season. When he breaks the Fugees’ story in The New York Times, people deluge Mayor Swaney with criticism, and he allows the Fugees to return to Armistead park. People also donate money to the Fugees, allowing Luma to expand her program. Luma also reconciles with Mandela, helps him get into Job Corps, and helps many of the other boys get into college.
Many of the boys move over time but are always replaced by incoming refugees to whom Luma continues to devote her time. Concluding the book, St. John recounts Tracy’s words about Luma: that she is just “a normal person doing what she can for the people around her,” and that she is proof that any person can do something good for their community.
