Sam Gold­berg escaped the Tre­blin­ka Death Camp dur­ing the pris­on­er revolt on August 2, 1943. Run­ning to the woods, he met Esther, who was hid­ing there. For anoth­er year until lib­er­a­tion, they hid togeth­er in barns and in a pit in the for­est. The author, mar­ried to Sam and Esther’s son, uncov­ers details of their wartime expe­ri­ences and she trav­els, togeth­er with her fam­i­ly, to Poland to see the Shtetl Stoczek and the farm­ing vil­lage of Bagatele. 

While in Poland, they have a remark­able vis­it with the fam­i­lies of the Chris­t­ian fam­i­lies who helped Sam and Esther sur­vive. The dead of Poland speak loud­ly from the ash­es, but the liv­ing find new voic­es. The author and her fam­i­ly meet the Pol­ish Jews of today and hear the sto­ries of those who are find­ing a way to be Jew­ish in Poland after the fall of com­mu­nism. The author lis­tens to these many voic­es and finds her own in the process.