This is a biography and family history of five generations of an Assyrian Christian family as told through the eyes of the scion of their family Sam Sarmecanic. It begins with his grandparents generation and the flight to Iraq to escape genocide and covers his father's emigration to Chicago in the early 20th century by himself at age 9, his return to Urmia and Golpachan village as an adult, the agrarian life of seasonal migration between village and town, Sam's education in Tehran, his studies in London, his founding of a civil engineering firm which became one of the best in Iran, the revolution and emigrating with his family to San Jose, California to begin a new life.