Jackson Heights

The story revolves around six Pakistanis living in Jackson Heights a suburb in Queens, New York.

Salma (Aamina Sheikh) works very hard at Haseena Beauty Salon. The owner of the salon Aalia (Meher Jaffri) is a good friend of Salma. Salma stays with her mother-in-law and step daughter Iman and is the sole breadwinner of the house. Her mother-in-law is cruel to her and makes shrewd remarks on everything she does.

Later in the series is it revealed that Salma's husband Sikandar (Ali Kazmi) is a convict doing his time in prison and has been released early due to good behaviour. Sikandar is abusive towards Salma and has no constant source of income. He gambles and mugs people and sells stolen watches and cell phones in the gray market.

Imran Bhatti (Noman Ejaz) is a cab driver with a heart of gold. All the other cabbies of the neighbourhood admire and respect Bhatti very much. Bhatti came to New York fifteen years back on a tourist visa and has never been able to go back to Pakistan because of his illegal visa status.

Bhatti has told everyone in his family that he owns a cab company in the US. His ailing mother lives in Pakistan with his older brother and sister-in-law who treat her badly.

Bhatti is married to an American woman Kathy as part of a citizenship deal. Kathy is mean and rude towards Bhatti. Kathy's daughter Isabella (Alma Moos Nunez) shares this attitude with her mother. Her son Mark (Theo van Golen) however, is close to Bhatti and looks up to him.

Salma meets Bhatti once when she rides his cab and is really annoyed with his over friendly and talkative behaviour. He later helps her when a bunch of goons are chasing and even teasing her while she is returning from work. They become good friends after this incident. Aalia also likes Bhatti very much because of his good nature. Bhatti shares stories of his personal life with Salma here and there but she never shares anything with him only until one day he spots her walking down the street with Emaan. One late night, Bhatti gets mugged by Sikander and his cousin Kash but Bhatti registers Sikander's face oblivious to the fact that he is Salma's husband. He later recognizes him when he visit's Salma's house to return her wallet that she had left in his cab.

Also staying with Bhatti's mother is Jamshed (Adeel Hussain), the son of Bhatti's only dead sister who has completed his graduation. Jamshed has a girlfriend Asma who is his next door neighbour. Asma wants Jamshed to stay in Pakistan and look for a job but he is obsessed with going to the US to making a better life for himself. His US visa is in processing and on account of that he rejects the offer of a government job. Eventually his six-month tourist visa is approved and he travels to New York leaving behind his ailing grand mother, Asma, and his friend Nadir. He believes setting foot in New York would end all his financial problems.

Michelle (Marina Khan) is a Pakistani Christian who runs a restaurant in Jackson Heights. She has an icy cold attitude towards all Desis. The cabbies of the neighbourhood visit her diner everyday and are all intimidated by Michelle. The only cabbie she truly likes and respects is Bhatti. It is later revealed that Michelle was married to a Pakistani who later divorced her and his family took possession of the property she had inherited from her late father.

Michelle's only surviving family is her sister Maria who stays in London. Michelle's close friend and confidant is Rizwan (Adnan Jaffar), a banker from India. Rizwan is in love with Michelle but has never explicitly told her. After Rizwan's sister visits him and persuades him he proposes to Michelle on his birthday but she rejects. Devastated, Rizwan moves away to Chicago.

Jamshed travels to New york only to realize how tough it is to survive there. He finds out that Bhatti is only a cab driver and does not own a cab company. Due to his tourist visa he is unsuccessful in finding any job for himself and Kathy also throws him out of her house thinking he was trying to make advances towards Izzy. Bhatti then requests Michelle to let Jamshed rent her apartment above the restaurant and Michelle reluctantly agrees. Nadir calls Jamshed and tries to make him understand that Asma misses him and he should come back to Pakistan but Jamshed ignores. Eventually Nadir falls for Asma and proposes to her and she accepts.

Slowly Michelle starts liking Jamshed and hires him as a waiter at the restaurant. Jamshed shows promise at work and gets into Michelle's good books much to the dismay of her other staff. He starts flirting with her but she rejects his advances. On one depressed day Michelle talks to Rizwan about how she pushes people away to avoid getting hurt and Rizwan advises her to follow her heart. She then starts reciprocating to Jamshed's romantic advances despite of her better judgement and the age gap between them. She promotes him to restaurant manager and values his advice. Jamshed starts taking advantage of this and starts having his own way.

Sikandar with his cousin Kash gambles at a local casino and loses and ows a sum of $25000 to the owner who are part of money laundering Mafia. Salma loves and cares about Iman dearly and has saved her wedding jewellery for her college fees. Sikandar, pretending to have started caring about Salma, tries to trick Salma in giving him the jewellery so that he can sell it and pay back the amount. Salma overhears Sikandar's conversation with Kash and takes Bhatti's help in putting the jewellery in her bank locker.