Raisa’s beloved old­er sis­ter, Hen­da left their Pol­ish shtetl four years ear­li­er for Amer­i­ca. She worked as a seam­stress and reg­u­lar­ly sent mon­ey to be saved for Raisa’s pas­sage. Both cling to their dream of even­tu­al­ly being togeth­er again in the goldineh med­i­nah, but when Hen­da is mis­tak­en­ly informed that Raisa has died from typhus, she col­laps­es in grief and dis­ap­pears from the only address Raisa has for her. When Raisa final­ly arrives in New York City, she already has tak­en respon­si­bil­i­ty for a four-year-old who was orphaned on the ship. Not only does Raisa have to find lodg­ing and work, she must find her sis­ter — immense obsta­cles for a girl just bare­ly 14 years old, who is essen­tial­ly illit­er­ate and almost pen­ni­less. The nov­el is care­ful­ly researched, includ­ing descrip­tions of every­thing from the ocean cross­ing in steer­age to anti-Semi­tism to work­ing in sweat­shops. But to impart so much infor­ma­tion — espe­cial­ly about the con­di­tions that led to the dev­as­tat­ing fire at the Tri­an­gle Waist Com­pa­ny — the char­ac­ters usu­al­ly sound like they are giv­ing speech­es or a his­to­ry les­son instead of speak­ing nat­u­ral­ly. Final­ly, how­ev­er, Raisa is reunit­ed with her sis­ter in a fairy tale end­ing. Hen­da is not only more beau­ti­ful than Raisa remem­bers her, but she has mar­ried a rich, gen­er­ous and very kind man. Raisa, too, even­tu­al­ly mar­ries her true love and all seem des­tined to, at last, live hap­pi­ly ever after. Grades 6 – 10.