Invited to an interview by a Taliban commander, New York Times reporter David Rohde and two Afghan colleagues were kidnapped in November 2008 and spirited to the tribal areas of Pakistan. For seven months, they lived in an alternate reality, ruled by jihadists, in which paranoia, conspiracy theories, and shifting alliances abounded. Held in bustling towns, they found that Pakistan's powerful military turned a blind eye to a sprawling Taliban mini-state that trained suicide bombers, plotted terrorist attacks, and helped shelter Osama bin Laden. In New York, David's wife of two months, Kristen Mulvihill, his family, and the Times struggled with the labyrinth of issues that confront relatives of hostages. Their methodical approach made little impact on the complex mix of cruelty, irrationality, and criminality that characterizes the militant Islam of David's captors. In the end, the experience strengthened Mulvihill and Rohde's relationship and exposed the failures of American effort in the region.