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Plot Summary with Spoilers:
(brought to you by kat impatientreader.com) In December 2001, Amir is an Afghan immigrant now living in the USA (San Francisco). He gets a call from an old friend Rahim Khan in Afghanistan who needs his help on a not-yet-revealed matter.
The next several chapters detail Amir's childhood in Afghanistan. He is a bookish boy and his wealthy father Baba prefers the servant's son Hassan, a traditional rough-and-tumble boy. Jealous and insecure, Amir begins to shun Hassan who still regards him as a beloved playmate.
Hassan defends Amir from a sadistic bully Assef. Later, during a kite tournament that Amir wins, Hassan runs into Assef and his friends. When he refuses to turn over Amir's kite, Assef beats and sexually assaults Hassan. Amir shows up in time to see it, but is too afraid to help his friend. After this, Amir's guilt grows so overwhelming that he falsely accuses Hassan of theft, which forces Baba to dismiss Hassan and his father Ali from the household.
Soon after that, the Soviets invade Afghanistan. Amir and Baba immigrate to the United States where they struggle in poverty. Baba works at a gas station and develops incurable lung cancer. Amir gets a degree in writing at a community college. His father lives long enough to see Amir married to Soraya from another Afghan immigrant family. Later, Amir becomes a successful author, but he and Soraya learn that they can't have children.
This brings us to the present (fifteen years after Amir's wedding). Rahim Khan calls from Afghanistan and fills Amir in on the past. Apparently Hassan was not actually the son of the servant Ali, but of Baba, which makes him Amir's half-brother! Hassan and his wife were killed by the Taliban, leaving behind a son Sohrab who needs to be rescued.
Amir sees a way to redeem himself. He returns to Taliban-controlled Kabul, and finds out that Sohrab lives in an orphanage where the children are preyed upon by a Taliban official who borrows them periodically for sex. The official turns out to be Amir's old childhood nemesis, Assef. Amir manages to fight Assef and rescue Sohrab. However, Sohrab is badly traumatized and attempts suicide.
Amir brings Sohrab home to San Francisco where he and his wife Soraya try to heal the boy's emotional wounds. Finally, after a year has passed, Amir seems to connect with Sohrab while flying a kite with him and telling him about Hassan's days as a kite runner.
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