This is Regina Nedas' memoir, a family history of her parents growing up in Lithuania where their way of life was shattered by WWII, first by the war, and then by the decades of Soviet occupation. She describes the struggles for independence from the socialist rules, her unhappy marriages, her selfish brother and sister-in-law, and finally her successful flight to the United States where arriving with nothing, she succeeded in enjoying the American dream of independence and prosperity for herself and her children.