A young man, nominally Jewish, and his Episcopalian girlfriend plan a church wedding. The groom’s mother, who is paying for it (and is instructed to otherwise stay out of the way), decides to research the family tree to present to the couple. But she begins to unravel a story she never suspected: flight from country to country, continent to continent, for five hundred years, driven by threat of torture and murder. The persecutor? The Church! She tries to impress upon her son the significance of his faith—which she has never taught him. She must also contend with the bride’s mother, an uncompromising church official. But what happened in the fire that consumed the home of the groom's mother just before the wedding was scheduled to begin?