At fourteen Sophie Kamler crossed the Atlantic alone, from Poland to America. At sixteen she paid for her siblings and mother to follow. At eighteen, a penniless wife, then a mother of three, she defied New York gangsters. At fifty six, a widow, she married again only to be widowed a second time. Matriarch to a sprawling but tightly held family of descendants, hers is a story of ambition - of love given, withheld, slighted, sustained and disappointed. Told here by her granddaughter, Barbara Kamler, in riveting vignettes, photographs and poetic reflections, this tale will resonate with the experience of so many remarkable women, minimising the complexity and vibrancy of their lives.