It's 1911. Tazia survives fire, and she's unwed, pregnant and Italian in America.

Tazia, a pregnant seventeen-year-old Italian immigrant and survivor of the Triangle Waist Company fire, flees New York, leaving her married lover to think she miscarried the baby he urged her to abort. To support herself and her daughter Gemma, Tazia takes low-wage jobs as she migrates westward.

Gemma, now fifty, embarks on an eastward journey to find her father, eventually tracing her roots to Italy. In the end, Tazia no longer needs to escape her history, while Gemma finds that her identity leads back to her mother.

Tazia and Gemma illuminates the tension between assimilation versus honoring one's heritage, and confronts the struggle for self-respect in the face of discrimination and demeaning work conditions-issues both timely and timeless.