Plot

A young Pakistani man chasing corporate success on Wall Street finds himself embroiled in a conflict between his American Dream, a hostage crisis, and the enduring call of his family's homeland.

Changez is prodigious student who completes his bachelor's in finance from Princeton University and joins Underwood Samson, a consultancy firm, as an analyst. He vacations in Greece, after graduating from Princeton, with fellow Princetonians where he meets Erica (Kate Hudson), who is an aspiring writer. He is instantly smitten by her, but his feelings remain almost unrequited because she is still grieving over the death of her childhood sweetheart Chris, who succumbed to lung cancer. After a date, they return to his place, and he proceeds to have sex with her but stops because of her frigidity and inability to get excited.

After this incident, there is interlude where neither contact each other. But soon they go on another date, after which they have sex when Changez convinces Erica to close her eyes and fantasize that she is with Chris.

In his professional life, he impresses his peers and gets earmarked by his superiors for his work, especially Jim, the person who recruited him and develops a good rapport with him and holds him in high esteem. This prompts the firm to send him to offshore assignments to the Philippines and Valparaíso, Chile. In Chile, he is very distracted due to developments in the world and finds himself to be a servant of American empire which has constantly interfered and manipulated his homeland. In the global scenario, the September 11 attacks, there is air of suspicion towards Pakistanis. He is even strip searched upon his return from the Philippines by US Airport authorities (in the name of random searches). Changez due to his privileged position in society escapes the harsh treatment and detention, but he notices a change in his treatment in public. To express solidarity with his countrymen, he starts to grow a beard. He is mistakenly arrested by the police, who were actually looking for another bearded Muslim spreading fear and panic on the streets of New York.

Erica is actually a professional photographer & is working on a huge project that Changez knows very little about. Erica keeps Changez away while she is working on the project. When the gallery finally opens, Changez finds that the topic of the exhibition is "I had a Pakistani Once", in an apparent bid to gain sensationalism by linking the exhibition with the brutal attacks of 9/11. Changez breaks off from Erica.

After 2001 Indian Parliament attack, India and Pakistan mobilize leading to a standoff. Noticing the American response to this situation, he has an epiphany how his country is being used as pawn. He returns from Chile to New York without completing the assignment and ends up losing his job. With no job, expiring Visa and no reason to stay in America, he moves back to Lahore.

After returning to Lahore, he becomes a professor of finance at the local university. His experience and insight in world issues gains his admiration among students. As a result, he becomes a mentor to large groups of students on various issues. He and his students actively participated in demonstrations against policies which were detrimental to the sovereignty of Pakistan. In spite his nonviolent stance, one of relatively unknown student gets apprehended for an assassination attempt of an American representative. This brings the spotlight on Changez where he criticizes the policies of USA. This act makes people surrounding him think that someone might be sent to intimidate him or worse.

An American professor working in the same college as Changez is kidnapped. Prof Reineir used to work very closely with Changez. An American reporter Bobby approaches Changez for an interview & Changez tells him his entire life story from the beginning. He says that his actions are being misinterpreted as violent extremism & that his family in Lahore was being unfairly targeted to sow fear and panic in him.

As the conversation reaches its conclusion, Changez tells the reporter that he actively refused to aid the fundamentalists in his country & that he knows that Reineir & Bobby are both CIA agents who are actually keeping an eye on Changez. Bobby says that the with time passing, the situation is worsening & that a CIA extraction team is on its way to take Changez away for questioning. Meanwhile Changez's students get increasingly violent at the police activity within their campus, including harassment of students in the name of finding Reineir.

Changez & Bobby get increasingly animated as Changez tries to persuade Bobby to call off the extraction team, while Bobby pleads with Changez to reveal the location of Reineir. Then Bobby receives an image that shows Reineir dead. Bobby loses all control & accuses Changez of tipping off the kidnappers, leading to Reineir's murder. Bobby puts a gun to Changez's head & attempts to take him away but finds resistance from Changez's students who are already agitated & in huge numbers.

Bobby is shot in the leg, as the CIA team arrives. Changez escapes. Bobby is told by his team that Reineir was killed but hours earlier. Bobby checks Changez's phone & finds that the only call he had made all day was to his sister. One of Changez's students is killed in the melee of Bobby's extraction & this turns the moderate Changez into an extremist.