A teenage boy flees war-torn Africa and treks across the world, from New York to Paris and back to Africa, desperate to find a greater meaning to life. African teenager Nickolas returns home from school one day to find his family slaughtered. Shell-shocked, Nickolas escapes war-torn Burundi and flees to Manhattan, but the bustling, superficial city has no patience for the displaced young refugee. Uprooted and determined, Nickolas begins a new life studying psychology and theology. While at college, he meets Levy, a narcissistic law student that Nickolas follows to Paris, where they join Levy's brother, angry artist Stan. Nickolas witnesses a love triangle develop as Stan and Levy vie for the affections of wealthy socialite. Embroiled in the storm of his friends' sins and self-obsession, Nickolas struggles to find the brighter side of mankind and, at last, abandons his new life to go home after ten years of running away. Returning to Burundi, Nickolas is sure that his homeland has the purity that eluded him in New York and Paris. He is delighted to find that both his childhood best friend and his close relative are still alive, and reconnects with them, only to find them just as mired in vice. Alcoholism, womanizing, abuse, and self-indulgence are just as rife in Burundi and Kenya. Nickolas learns that, on each continent, men and women are empty and corrupt with sex, drug addiction and alcoholism. Nickolas doggedly continues on his soul-searching journey, his spirit growing stronger as he goes. Is the grass ever actually Greener on the Other Side? What does it mean to hope the best for humanity and truly turn everything over to God?