A memoir about a young Jewish boy from a shtetl, a small village called Kortelisy in Eastern Europe, which was at that time part of Poland and is now part of Ukraine. When the Soviets arrive in 1939, young Pinchas adapts to their Communist ideals, and then with the invasion of the Nazis and the murders of his neighbours and family members, he and his family are forced to flee. He survives the Holocaust by hiding with local farmers and in the nearby forests. After the war, he immigrates to Canada and lives in Montreal, where he becomes involved in the Yiddish theatre community.