In this novel for young teens, Nathan Kravetz tells the story of Mark Lerner, a Jewish boy who lived in what was once the Soviet Union.

Marks father, an engineer with a strong devotion to his family, his faith, and to freedom, has asked permission for them to leave for Israel. For this hostile act against the strict authoritarian government, Alexander Lerner has been put into prison. The Soviet government has refused his request to emigrate. He is, along with many other Jews, now a refusenik.

Then, at a brief time of relaxed rules, the Soviet authorities permit Mark and his mother to emigrate. They look forward to going to Israel and to wait there for Alexander Lerners release from prison.

This story takes the reader from Moscow with Mark and his mother to their experiences after leaving the country. Marks adventures, though fiction, are based on actual events. They did happen.