While Rebecca Rubin helps her building's ailing superintendent take care of his homing pigeons, she puzzles over what to do with the Christmas centerpiece her teacher insisted she make but which has no place in her Jewish home.

Ten-year-old Rebecca Rubin is injured during a strike at the sweatshop where her uncle and cousin work when she tries to give a speech, while keeping a big secret from her family.

Rebecca is excited to have her cousin Ana from Russia living with her family in New York City, but she fears that Ana's poor English-speaking skills will ruin her presentation at school.

"Rebecca Rubin is growing up in the bustling city of New York in 1914. She dreams of being a star on the silver screen, but her performance this year is on the stage at school. She has to share the spotlight with her cousin Ana, though, and Rebecca fears the audience will laugh instead of applaud. Will Ana hurt or help the performance? Then, being included in a special plan fills Rebecca with joy. But what act of kindness teaches her the true meaning...

For her tenth birthday, Rebecca is invited to visit her cousin Max's movie studio! When the cameras begin to roll, she finds herself unexpectedly presented with a part to play. Rebecca doesn't have the courage to tell her family, but is it wrong to keep such a big secret? Later that summer, on a visit to the factory where her uncle and cousin work, Rebecca is horrified. Is this the life that's in store for cousin Ana? There must be a way to improve...

When Rebecca helps her injured neighbor, Mr. Rossi, by caring for his pigeons, she discovers a strange black pigeon with an eerie message warning Mr. Rossi of danger, and consults a fortune teller to learn if she is in danger, as well.

A crafty beggar tricks an innkeeper into giving him a free dinner by threatening to do what the beggar's father did when he got no dinner.

Presents six stories featuring Rebecca Rubin, a Jewish girl growing up in 1914 New York City.

When Rebecca attends summer camp in the country because of the spreading polio epidemic in New York City, she is troubled by a bully in her tent and another fellow camper who is strangely secretive.