The descriptions of daily life at the hospital and around town, and of trips to numerous places, combined with the maps in the appendix, provide the reader a basic sense of familiarity with the country. Unfortunately, the author didn't include a lot of pictures. (To see some photographs of the various places described in the book, both around town and in the desert, go to the Taza Press website.)

Unlike many of the other expats working at the hospital, Jones and his family did not take advantage of the many buffers it provided or remain isolated and insulated from the larger society: "the hospital was a mini-city, and like the US Army before, assumed the function of caring for many of the social needs of its employees and their families," providing completely furnished and equipped housing, its own power plant, water treatment plant, security and fire departments, subsidized food and recreation facilities, post office and telephone exchange, as well as transportation and travel departments. He and his family and a few other expats got out and explored the country, especially the desert, meeting numerous Saudis in the city and on the road.

Getting out and involved in various activities around the country, including forming warm and not-so-warm relationships with various Saudis, gave Jones more insight into the social and cultural mechanisms of change, including the impact of Western (particularly American) attitudes towards the Saudi people, culture and religion. Jones observes how the hospital, during its early years when it was entirely administered by Americans, rendered the Saudis in whose country it operated largely invisible to the staff. In the very heart of one of the most socially conservative countries, the Saudis "were at the very periphery of our existence. The very poor Saudis drove the hospital buses and the local taxis. More affluent Saudis were shopkeepers... A small group of Saudis worked at the hospital in administration posts but were kept at the extreme edges of power... like so much cardamom sprinkled in the coffee, an exotic presence sufficient to suggest that one was not actually in a hospital in Peoria."

Jones uses quotes by famous Western writers to introduce his chapters, people such as T. E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia), Wilfrid Thesiger, and Gertrude Bell. The quotes function as points of reference and distinction, historical markers of sorts, laying bare past prejudices. He notes, after a Lawrence quote, what "a profound unease" the modern reader should experience from some of their writing, especially their "casual assessment of the racial characteristics of another people." He is looking through very different eyes, of course, but in examining how others before him viewed and treated this particular Other, he gives us a bit more perspective on the inevitable rise of opposition and hatred. "All these observers," he writes, "with their impressions of Arabia, sliced and diced."

Over the course of almost 25 years Jones observes remarkable changes in Saudi Arabia. He witnesses the profound and rapid transformation of Riyadh, initially a small frontier town with only a couple of traffic lights, into a bustling, modern city. He witnesses the hybridization and modernization, in many cases for the worse, of the Bedouin. Most of the Bedouin people, over the course of about 20 years, abandoned their nomadic lifestyles in favor of a sedentary one, and, as with indigenous populations in other parts of the world, ended up with various problems, including an epidemic of diabetes.