After his Polish-Jewish family is taken to a Nazi concentration camp, eleven-year-old David is smuggled ashore in Palestine with other refugees. There, he begins a search for his father, who has promised to meet him in the Holy Land after the war. He wanders through the country, passing the potash mines of the Dead Sea, where Jews and Arabs work side by side, and other cities, farms and factories in the desert. During his travels, David is first taken in by a refugee home and then an orphanage, where he is adopted by a kind Jewish family, the father of which claims to be David's uncle. When the boy discovers that he is not really related to the family, however, he runs away to continue his search. He meets a group of Palestians, including Avram, the charismatic leader of a farm collective, and Miriam, a young woman whose husband and child have been killed by the Nazis. Miriam, whose horrific experiences during the war have caused her to retreat emotionally, finds herself renewed by her friendship with David. Finally, David learns that his family perished in the Belgen concentration camp and immediately collapses into a temporary state of infantile amnesia. Avram, realizing that Miriam and David can provide each other with the family they need, conspires to keep the two together. Under her constant care, the boy slowly learns to walk and talk again, and eventually the two decide that they can start a new life together in Palestine.
