Samantha and her husband Dov immigrate to Palestine in the 1940s. They are American Zionists motivated by political idealism. Dov is a communist architect who devotes his time to building the new country, leaving his wife on her own. Kalkofsky, a German Jew and bookseller, left his family behind in Europe and has not heard from them. He is lost in his beliefs that Jews and Arabs can prosper together. War is raging in Europe, and news of the plight of Jews there inspires Dov to join the Jewish Brigade to fight on the German Front. Out of loneliness, Samantha and Kalkofsky find themselves in each other arms. Dov, on his return from the war, boasts to his wife of having raped a German woman justifying himself by saying that "She was a fascist." Samantha leaves him. Kalkofsky learns that his family has been exterminated in the German concentration camps. With nothing left for him he commits suicide. Samantha is now alone and free.