Fundamentally

When Dr. Nadia Amin, a long-suffering academic, publishes an article on the possibility of rehabilitating ISIS brides she lands a coveted lectureship, and is freed from the misery of adjuncting. The United Nations also comes calling, offering the opportunity to lead a deradicalization program for the ISIS affiliated women held in Iraqi refugee camps. Looking for a way out of London after a painful, unexpected breakup Nadia leaps at the chance.

In Iraq Nadia quickly realizes she's in over her head. Her direct reports are hostile and unenthused to be taking orders from an obvious UN novice, and the murmurs of deradicalization being inherently unethical and possibly illegal threaten to end Nadia's UN career before it even begins.

Frustrated by her situation and the unrelenting heat, Nadia decides to visit her camp with her sullen team comprised of goody-two-shoes Sherri who never passes up an opportunity to remind Nadia of her objections; and Pierre, a snippy Frenchman who has no qualms perpetually scrolling through Grindr.

At the camp, a clumsy introductory session with the ISIS women is where Nadia meets Sara, whose accent gives her away as a fellow East Londoner. From their first interaction Nadia feels inexplicably drawn to the rude girl in the diamante headscarf. She leaves the camp determined to get Sara home.

But the system Nadia is trapped in is a quagmire of inaction and corruption. One accomplishment barely makes a dent in Nadia's ultimate goal of freeing Sara...and the other women too, of course. And so, Nadia makes an impossible decision leading to ramifications she could have never imagined.

A triumph of dark humor, FUNDAMENTALLY asks bold questions--who can tell someone what to believe? And how does one save someone who doesn't want to be saved?