It's the height of World War II, but Italian immigrants Anna and Arturo Terranova and their four children have high hopes as they settle into their new apartment in a colorful, working-class section of Manhattan's West Side. They are finally coming together as a family. Then suddenly the war, which seemed so far away, comes crashing into their lives. The is the first in a series of major setbacks for the family. Each incident is foreshadowed and detonated by war, starting with World War II up to the present conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. As their lives become embroiled in each conflict, the Terranovas struggle to discover the power of family and togetherness in the face of the destructive and divisive force of war and terrorism.