Refugees from a Caribbean island embark on a dangerous boat trip to America where they have a special reason to celebrate Thanksgiving.

"Back in Zanzibar, Saleh Omar had a furniture shop, owned a house, was a husband and father. Now, newly arrived at London's Gatwick Airport, he is just another asylum seeker. A mahogany box of fragrant ud is his most precious possession, silence his only protection. Meanwhile, Latif Mahmud, a young professor, lives quietly alone in his London flat. When the two encounter each other in an English seaside town, the narratives each carries of their shared...

It is 1946 when Vera Frankel and her best friend Edith Ban arrive in Naples. Refugees from Hungary, they managed to escape from a train headed for Auschwitz and spent the rest of the war hiding on an Austrian farm. Now, the two young women must start new lives abroad. Armed with a letter of recommendation from an American officer, Vera finds work at the United States embassy where she falls in love with Captain Anton Wight. But as Vera and Edith grapple...