"Chronicles the tumultuous life journey of a young immigrant seamstress, as she travels from her isolated Italian mountain village through the dark corners of late nineteenth century America."--from publisher's description.

"Ellis Island, 1902: Two women band together to hold America to its promise: Give me your tired, your poor...your huddled masses yearning to breathe free... A young Italian woman arrives on the shores of America, her sights set on a better life. That same day, a young American woman reports to her first day of work at the immigration center. But Ellis Island isn't a refuge for Francesca or Alma, not when ships depart every day with those who are refused...

Life in New York in the early twentieth century is tougher than Joseph ever dreamed it wouold be.

With the cloud of the Holocaust still looming over them, twin sisters Bronka and Johanna Lubinski and their parents arrive in the US from a Displaced Persons Camp. In the years after World War II, they experience the difficulties of adjusting to American culture as well as the burgeoning fear of the Cold War. Years later, the discovery of a former Nazi hiding in their community brings the Holocaust out of the shadows. As the girls get older, they...

In 1908, eleven-year-old Innie joins the library club at a settlement house that serves immigrant families of Boston's North End, but when items and money disappear from the settlement house, Innie's past as a troublemaker puts her under suspicion.

In 1737, Anna and Bairn meet during their crossing to start a new life in the raw Pennsylvania frontier. As Anna and her fellow church members seek out a new beginning, Bairn has yet to commit to the strict expectations of the Amish community. Will their shipboard romance survive unexpected turns-- and a newcomer to the church who is everything Bairn is not?