In Bisi Adjapon's Daughter in Exile, main character Lola is a Ghanaian who lands in New York City in 1997, pregnant and with only $250 to her name. She is forced to make a plethora of decisions on the fly in a country where she knows few people, is frightened and is about to bring a new life into the world.

Expecting her fiancé, an American Marine named Armand, to have secured temporary housing for her, Lola is blindsided when she discovers he hasn't followed through on his plan, for no apparent reason other than flakiness, and that she is now homeless. A Jehovah's Witness and immigrant from Martinique, an aloof woman named Mrs. Summer, provides a room for her but only for one night. Olga, who Lola met in Senegal, takes her in temporarily. A married woman with children, Olga admonishes her young friend, "You're far too trusting, Lola. The world isn't made up of wonderful people ...