The Nest­ing Dolls is about three gen­er­a­tions of a Sovi­et Jew­ish fam­i­ly in 1930s Odessa, USSR, 1970s Odessa, USSR, and present day Brighton Beach, Brook­lyn. Three women strug­gle to sur­vive through Stal­in’s purges and the war against ​“cos­mopolitism,” the Free Sovi­et Jewry/​refusnik move­ment and the bat­tle between roots and assim­i­la­tion in America.