In the first half of the twentieth century, as Soviet Communism and the Nazi occupation of Europe threaten their way of life and very existence, members of several Jewish families make their perilous flights to new lives in the United States and in the Land of Israel. Meanwhile, two Irish men and two Irish women of the Catholic faith leave their native land in search of employment and a better life in the U.S. The author traces these family histories and his own escape from occupied France in 1941, living in New York and Indiana as a refugee, the challenges and pleasures of studying at Harvard and Oxford universities, his interfaith marriage, and the practice of international law in Washington, D.C.