In the late fall of 2012, Theo Padnos, a struggling American journalist, slipped into Syria to report on the country's civil war and was promptly kidnapped by Al Qaeda's branch in Syria. Because he spoke fluent Arabic, his captors suspected he worked for the CIA and, for months, brutally tortured him during interrogation sessions. But his fluency, coupled with his remarkable personal expansiveness, also led to an extraordinary engagement with, and understanding of, his captors.