In his school picture Benjamin is the kid in the second row, off to one side. Now in his twenties, his education is interrupted by the death of his parents. He is determined to complete his education, to accomplish something to get him out of the second row. That is his purpose for coming to America, where his widowed aunt Hannah is offering encouragement and support. He is a refugee from Nazi Germany, arriving with his family in Palestine during the Arab riots of 1936. He is a past soldier and fighter in the Israel War of Independence, and carries with him the idealism that he grew up with....