The book unspools four gen­er­a­tions of John Lorinc’s family’s jour­ney through the Holo­caust in Hun­gary, the 1956 Rev­o­lu­tion, and final­ly exo­dus from a coun­try that can’t rid itself of its anti­se­mit­ic demons. The sto­ry focus­es on John’s eccen­tric and defi­ant grand­moth­er, a con­sum­mate sur­vivor with a love of flashy jew­el­ry and an unfil­tered out­look. He also explores the sto­ries of how both his grand­fa­thers per­ished late in the war, and his own father’s expe­ri­ences in a forced labor camp in east­ern Yugoslavia. The book sets out to sit­u­ate the fig­ures in Lorinc’s fam­i­ly against a com­pli­cat­ed his­tor­i­cal back­drop, and in so doing unrav­el the secre­cy and ten­ta­tive­ness among Hun­gar­i­an Jews who fled in 1956.