Approaching the end of her eventful life, Elisabeth Rother has decided to write her memoirs, brushing aside her and her Jewish husband's narrow escape from the Nazis and their difficult arrival in New Jersey in order to concentrate her story on the wayward behavior of her impossible daughter, Renate, and granddaughter, Irene.

A collection of stories finds its main characters in unlikely places and situations, from an affluent Jewish American who returns to Germany to a homosexual restauranteur who gets the chance to cook another meal for his first lover