Fleeing the war-torn German Empire, Brunhilde “Hilde” Schuster immigrates to the United States where her cousin’s family teaches her rudimentary English. She finds work as a caretaker for the elderly member of a family whose German ancestors immigrated decades earlier. Carl Becker, whose parents fled Germany after the failed 1848 revolution before his birth, feels an attraction to the new companion for the Bergmann Oma. However, he is reluctant to strike up a friendship. Resentful of his mother’s constant pressure to marry a good German girl, he decided years earlier he was born in America, he’s an American, and he will marry an American woman. In the final weeks of November, Hilde learns of an American holiday called Thanksgiving. What do Pilgrims from England and eating turkey, corn, and pumpkin pie have to do with her? Invited to join her employers’ extended family and friends, in the spirt of celebration, she decides to bake and bring a favorite German dessert—Bienenstich Kuchen—Bee Sting Cake.