When the Bolshevik Revolution erupts in 1917 with pogroms persecuting Jews, Mama decides she and Raizle must escape to America, the "golden land" of safety. Carrying only a bundle of clothes and jewelry hidden in the false bottom of a metal can, they begin their long, unpredictable journey crossing the Black Sea at midnight in a tiny boat manned by a drunken sailor. Traveling by train through Romania, they're late in re-boarding at the station and stare in disbelief as the locomotive puffs away down the tracks. Mama anxiously approaches a conductor who then secretly guides them to a freight...