Seeing his parents' dining room after spending over four years fighting World War II moves Sam Hirsch to tears. But they are not strictly joyful: tonight, he plans to tell his parents and his fiancee, Ann, that he will be starting a new life as a settler in Palestine. His sudden appearance overjoys his gregarious, extremely Romanian-Jewish mother and father. He has already stopped by Ann's house to invite her over, so the four of them soon sit down to have dinner. The fear and guilt of his intent to leave almost suffocate Sam, especially after Ann brings up children and his father asks him to help with the family business. But his mother can tell something's bothering him, and she soon draws the confession out of him. Their shock and pain is palpable. When they question his choice, Sam erupts. He helped liberate the concentration camps in Germany, he rages, and only the Jews were left without a place to go. In his unit, anti-Semitism dogged him everywhere he went -- even before the war, his own family bore the brunt of it. and he could no longer. Even running in Jewish-only circles in New York, he rages, won't be enough. Only in Palestine can he really be himself among his own kind. After his parents go to bed, Sam finds himself left with Ann. He begs her to leave with him, she begs him to stay, but neither can convince the other. Sam accuses her, the woman who has waited three years for him, of not loving him strongly enough, bids her farewell, and runs out of the house to start his new life.