Sondra Afelbaum and her cousin, Howie, are among the few Jews in Lincoln, the small, Kansas town where they live. The feeling of being different is only intensified for Sondra when she is eleven years old and discovers that her mother, Helga, was a concentration camp survivor. After this revelation Sondra and Howie learn the story of how the Torah scroll they use for the small services in Lincoln was rescued by Oscar's brother following Krystal Nacht. They are chagrined to learn that a second scroll was also rescued and then later lost. The two cousins make a childish pact to travel to Europe and find the missing Sefer Torah when they are older. As Howie is increasingly pulled into the social scene in high school, Sondra's strong Jewish roots keep her from feeling like one of the crowd. Only after she joins the drama group does she begins to feel like a normal teenager. However, her parents do not permit her to go to the Winter Prom with a non-Jewish boy. Instead, she is sent to her cousins in Kansas City for the weekend. It is there that she meets the cantor's daughter, joins the youth group, and sets her feet on the path to Torah observance.