The book first surveys the author's earlier works in this field, in the Kibbutz, with families of Holocaust survivors and descendants of Nazi perpetrators, bring the two groups together. Most of the book is devoted to Bar-on's work with Palestinians, both Israeli-Palestinians and Palestinians from the PNA. Through three different settings he describes the hardships of peace building 'under fire', but also the potential achievements of such works.

People face serious difficulties in making sense of each other's feelings, behaviour, and discourse in everyday life and after traumatic experiences. Acknowledging and working through these difficulties is the subject of this book.