In 2015 Aleppo, Mahmoud and his family are driving in their station wagon, trying to find the fastest route to the Turkish border. He sees a large poster of Assad looming over them on the journey. They encounter a group of four rebel soldiers who climb into their vehicle. Confusion ensues as everyone suggests a different route to get out of the country without encountering a hostile force: “Between Assad and Daesh and Russia and America, Mahmoud thought, there wasn’t much of a Syria left to fight for” (70-71). As they drive toward the highway, gunfire erupts nearby. Stray bullets hit the car, and the soldiers climb out to return fire. Mahmoud’s father grabs their cell phones and chargers, and the entire family flees, leaving all their possessions and the car behind.

During the Atlantic crossing in 1939, Josef’s bar mitzvah ceremony is about to take place in the ship’s social hall. Beforehand, the officiating rabbi asks that Hitler’s giant portrait be taken down. Josef's father refuses to leave the cabin, thinking the gathering is a Nazi trap. Despite his father’s absence, Josef is pleased to see 100 men gathered to perform the ritual with him. Later, Josef overhears two crew members saying that their ship might be turned away when they reach Cuba if the country is already too full of refugees Josef wonders, “[i]f he and his family didn’t make it to Cuba, if they weren’t allowed in, where would they go? (80).