The hero of the story—Nathan, a middling writer, a Jew from Lithuania who has lived in New York for a long time—travels to Israel, where in a nursing home his ninety-year-old grandmother remains. The meeting of close people—grandmother and grandson, who never loved each other—takes place in a harsh time of Arab terror. It’s a reminder that love can overcome any obstacles in the human heart, but its time is limited by the shortness of human life.