In this warm, down to earth story covering 11 days during 1945 during WWII, we meet a young girl and share her awakening to the ways of a wartime world. Gerry and her family travel by bus across the U.S., losing their seats time and again to servicemen who have priority. Her mother passes the time sharing stories both nostalgic and comical about the Austrian grandparent's emigration to America. She describes how the family becomes a mini United Nations as Russians, Pollacks, Italians, and other Americans marry into the clan. Tired young soldiers and sailors listen and nod in recognition, as you, the reader, will also. Gerry's memories and her mothers entwine to form a compelling family narrative in this memoir within a memoir.