Sofia and her family are coming to America from Italy in 1903. The story is mainly, though, about her time on Ellis Island. The story tells about how immigrants were checked by doctors and could be kept out of the country temporarily for some ailment, or even refused admission altogether and returned to whatever country they came from.
It's also a story about graft and corruption on Ellis Island, and how the doctors, nurses and others managed to bilk the immigrants of their money and even stole things from them, reselling the stolen items later for even more profit for themselves. There was almost nothing at all the immigrants could do about this.
The historical section of the book talks some about this problem with corruption.
An interesting, but somewhat upsetting book.
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