Vartan Apelian is only two when he loses his parents in the first large-scale massacres of the twentieth century. It is not until his mid-teens that he realises the tragedy of the past. He emigrates to the States in the 1930's during a period of poverty and general unemployment. He manages to scratch a living from pretty hard work and then talks to the survivors of a homeland that no longer exists. The compelling eyewitness accounts of the atrocities haunt him.
He traces his Armenian roots during his historical research that takes him back to the land of his ancestors in Asia Minor. Once the cradle of some of the oldest of civilisations that witnessed the rise and fall of nations, kingdoms and empires - sometimes through centuries of struggle, persecution and bloodshed - it has been in ancient times the land of myths, legends and later the scene of frequent bloody turmoil. He scrupulously typifies his people's strengths and weaknesses.
What changes Vartan's whole life completely is the day when he discovers, to his amazement, that his mother, now a forgotten very old woman converted to Islam, has survived the massacres. After more than seven decades living apart, this constitutes the starting point of what forms the backbone of a gripping and unforgettable story of human destiny.
