This is a book about joy, strength, and triumph in the most unlikely circumstances. It tells us how families and individuals coped with and conquered such seemingly insurmountable challenges as widowhood, adoption, assimilation, terminal illness, retardation, and paralysis.

• the turmoil of a young Russian immigrant who is pulled apart by his dilemma over whether to become an “American” or a “Jew”;
• the pain of a young mother as she valiantly makes her way through the first stages of widowhood;
• the overwhelming pride of parents whose handicapped son achieves acceptance in a well-known yeshivah, on his own merits.