In 1939. Kalman, a young, determined and ambitious Jewish entrepreneur, decides to leave his ailing father and go to Palestine to join his sister Samantha, whom he hasn't seen for years. Though the father admires his daughter's idealism, he warns his son about the dangers of the region. Undeterred, Kalman sets out to join Samantha and finds her living with Dov, a similarly idealistic young architect who is totally absorbed in the work of Walter Gropius. In her spare time, Samantha assists the brilliant professor Oscar Kalkovsky, whose thoughts on an Israeli nation are couched in terms of a collaboration with the Arabs, with whom the Jews share the land. Then there is the headstrong Sylvia, a young woman who sees the future in slightly different terms. Within these five individuals reside very different views on the future of an independent Israel.