On the eve of World War II, Jewish doctor Egon Schneider escapes from Germany to upper Manhattan, he finds solace among fellow immigrants, drawn together by their memories of the world they left behind. Egon's lifelong friend, bestselling author Meyer Leavitt, now wears a sandwich board on a street corner; Catrina Harty, the headstrong daughter of an Irish trolley driver, survives heartbreak and loss to forge an unlikely alliance; and Egon himself abandons his medical practice to become the "Cheese Man" at a Washington Heights grocery. But their spirits remain unbroken, and when their little community is faced with an existential threat, these strangers rise up together in hopes of creating a permanent home.