Russian immigrant Rebekah Levinsky hopes desperately that her dream will come true in America. On the difficult ocean journey to the "land of opportunity" she meets two other girls—Kristin Swensen from Sweden and Rose Carney from Ireland. The three quickly become friends as they share their visions of the future and endure life on the overcrowded ship. Once they reach Ellis Island the girls must separate and Rebekah and her family settle in New York on the Lower East Side. Instead of finding streets paved with gold, they slave seven days a week in a sweatshop. Will Rebekah find the courage to conquer the odds and find happiness in the United States of America.

Rose Carney, a young girl from Ireland, befriends Rebecca, from Russia, and Kristen, from Sweden, during the long journey to America. They part ways at Ellis Island and Rose continues onto a new life in Chicago.

As Kristin Swensen anxiously awaits her first glimpse of America, she is filled with a sense of the freedom that her new life promises. But she soon finds herself living on a farm in Minnesota where her parents and neighbors cling as closely as possible to the life they had known in Sweden. Kristin can't accept coming all this way only to re-create what she left behind. She longs to speak English and help the cause of women's rights. Her parents, however, want her to settle down and get married. Must Kristin give up her dream of independence and accept her parents' Old World values?