The year is 1925. Following Germany's loss of World War I, her citizens are suffering from hunger, poverty and political chaos as their country is held responsible for severe reparation payments as defined in the Versailles Treaty. A family in Northern Friesland makes the difficult and moving decision to send their oldest son to the United States to be a farm laborer. His earnings from his seven-year tenure may be the only financial resource his loved ones have to avoid further deprivation. The story of Christian Hansen is one of many stories about immigrants who came to the United States with a similar mission of rescuing themselves or others from starvation and crises in the strange, often unfriendly and new world they called America.