Cahan's childhood and youth in the Russian Empire: the shtetl of Poderbrize near Vilna, his upbringing and schooling in Vilna, his years at the Teachers' Institute, a spiritual and political awakening, and his last winter in Russia before fleeing — ending with how he first came to the idea of America.

The great Jewish emigration and Cahan's own crossing from Brod to New York, then his arrival into immigrant life: a garret room on Clinton Street, first lessons in American politics, early steps in the Jewish labor movement, and his work on the Workmen's Advocate. Closes with the author's glossary of Americanisms in Yiddish.

The founding and running of the Arbeiter Zeitung, journeys to Europe and the Brussels International Socialist Congress, life at the writing desk and on the speaker's platform, the years of the American economic crisis and "De Leonism" — and the founding and first months of the Forverts.

The start of Cahan's literary career, the writing of Yekl, and new friendships and worlds in American letters and journalism. His return to a transformed Forverts, the light and shadow of its success, Jacob Gordin and the Yiddish theater, the paper's growth and its opponents, and many people and scenes of the Jewish quarter.

Part One carries the story to the eve of the World War — the year 1911, repeated journeys through Europe, and the return to New York and the Forverts. Part Two is a long, detailed study of the Leo Frank case in Atlanta (1913–1915), "The Frank Drama."