Dazzled by lore of the American dream, Chaya and her strange, brilliant, young brother Asher stow away to Chicago. What they discover there, however, is a Gilded Age as empty a façade as the beautiful Columbian Exposition, luring thousands to Lake Michigan's shore. The pair scrapes together a meager living-Chaya in a cigar factory; Asher, roaming the city and stealing books and jewelry to share with the poor, until they find different paths of escape....