family histories

The author dramatizes his family's history from 1811 to 1948, from his Dutch Jewish great-great-great-grandfather's choice of a last name, coerced by Napoleonic edict, to his aunts' and uncles' fates in the concentration camps and after World War II.

Carole becomes curious about her family tree when she goes to visit relatives in Minnesota. She discovers a secret, and begins to question where she's come from.