Our narrator gets caught ostensibly smuggling someone into Germany illegally. It is during conversations with an appointed psychologist that she recounts her family history, starting with her great-grandfather, Samuel Kohanim. The story begins in Prussia (now Poland) early in the 20th century, where a Jewish family enjoys an idyllic life near the Vistula river - except for the fact that Samuel has no male heir. Instead, he has seven daughters, for whom he worries about finding suitable husbands. As each daughter marries, the story moves across the landscape to Berlin, Germany. Franziska, the middle daughter, finds herself in a scandalous situation, into which Walter is born and adopted by Samuel as his heir. Oda, a close family friend, goes to work for one of the elder sisters as a seamstress. Oda has a daughter, Hella, who learns to fend for herself when her mother is arrested as a member of the Communist Party. Walter and Hella later marry. After Walter assaults a member of the Stasi, Hella decides they need to take their daughter and escape to the West. As the life stories of family members unfold, the events that form the history of the twentieth century are described from the points of view of observers or participants in letters and a well-crafted narrative. Spurned would-be lovers, sexual scandal, revenge, rags to fame, women finding their independence, and murder all with the changes occurring in Europe as a back drop.