In 1922 life in Eng­land for young Har­ry Bern­stein was filled with dreams, embell­ished by his moth­er to bright­en their pass­ing days in pover­ty. Deter­mined not to suc­cumb to life’s dif­fi­cul­ties and her husband’s neglect­ful­ness toward the fam­i­ly, Harry’s moth­er fer­vent­ly dreams of going to Amer­i­ca. A dream so big it would sure­ly die like all the others. 

Bernstein’s mem­oir chron­i­cles his life’s jour­ney from Eng­land to Chica­go and even­tu­al­ly New York. Keen to keep his mother’s dreams alive, Har­ry finds him­self caught between sur­viv­ing the Depres­sion, search­ing end­less­ly for a job while strug­gling to be a writer, falling in love and for­ev­er part­ing with family.