A family of German immigrants are living in Queens, New York and doing what they must to get on with life. These are bricklayers, window washers, house painters, and the housewives who tend to them, people for whom circumstances–two world wars and the Great Depression–have taken them farther afield than they ever imagined from their desires and roots.Sabine has been lured to America by her more glamorous and adventurous sister, Lottie, but seeks contentment in domestic pursuits. Lottie has bigger ambitions–to be an opera singer–and runs away to sea when her husband and talents disappoint her. Rudy, the best educated of the lot, once aspired to become a translator; he now finds his comfort in a bottle. Sabine’s husband, Gus, has bought into the “dream” and purchased two houses, one built with his own hands. Feeling insufficiently revered, he is catered to by a coterie of doting sisters who prefer the company of family, however irksome. All are cognizant their adopted country looks upon them with suspicion.

Tessa, the youngest daughter of Gus and Sabine and the keen observer of her adored aunt and uncle, longs to escape. She makes it as far as the opposite coast, but discovers that the truth is seldom clear cut, memory is tainted by nostalgia and, ultimately, affection.