Decades ago, the historian Bernard Wasserstein set out to uncover the hidden past of the town 40 miles west of Lviv where his family originated: Krakowiec. Wasserstein traces the arc of history across centuries of religious and political conflict. During the Second World War the Jews were murdered in circumstances harrowingly described by Wasserstein. After the war the Poles were expelled and the town dwindled into a border outpost. Today, the storm of history once again flows through Krakowiec as hordes of refugees flee for their lives from Ukraine to Poland. At the beginning and end of the book we encounter Wasserstein's own family, especially his grandfather Berl. In their lives and the many others Wasserstein has rediscovered, the people of Krakowiec become a prism through which we can feel the shocking immediacy of history.