Palestinian American fifth grader Farah Hajjar and her best friend Allie Liu are excited to apply to Magnet Academy for middle school, but then new girl Dana begins to bully Farah's little brother Samir, and Allie becomes close to Dana's friends. With Farah's parents stressed over work and money, Farah devises a plan to handle the bullying on her own but the plan involves lying, and soon Farah's lies catch up to her.