This memoir is the immigrant story of Arta, an uprooted adolescent, who grows up in Romania until the age of 14, during the Ceausescu regime. The author dedicates the memoir to her mother, Sofia, who managed to leave Romania in 1970 for a better life first in Paris, France, and then New York. The culture shock and many challenges they face together strengthen the mother-daughter bond and both rely on their creativity as artists to express the inner transformations of this new life (illustrations of Sofia' s tapestries and pyro engravings and Arta's paintings are included here.) Arta is also able to pursue higher degrees based on her love and dedication to French culture. And ultimately she feels at home in the United States when she marries her husband, Jerry, and they have their beloved daughter, Emmadora.