April 2021 Jan and Kelly have a privileged life as the teenaged children of two wealthy defense contractors in Karachi. They don't notice the odd behavior of their servants until it is too late.

Kidnapped from a Pakistani resort, the Polish boy and American girl are taken hostage by a disgraced Taliban fighter. He will stop at nothing to regain the favor of his father, the supreme Mullah of Afghanistan's Islamic extremists.

Surviving with only their wits and the help of a courageous dog, the two western teens are at the mercy of their ruthless captors. They are taken to the border region of Pakistan and Afghanistan, controlled by rival factions of extremists with guns and suicide bombs.

Their hopes of rescue are destroyed by a shocking betrayal that will cause Jan and Kelly to question everything they thought they knew. Their only chance of salvation may be a face-to-face encounter with the Mullah himself.

Caught up in the chaotic American withdrawal from the Afghanistan war, the young hostages must rely on each other to survive torture, near-starvation and their loss of innocence. Their journey to The Circle of Fire begins In Pakistan.