A Polish Jew, she immigrated with other members of her family, the Angrushes, to the United States at a young age, and became an ardent Communist.

The Party exiled Albert to East Germany in 1947 (for his uselessness in America), and then in 1955 expelled Rose, for having an affair with Douglas Lookins, a black police officer.

But Rose gets the last laugh, because Khrushchev's secret denouncements of Stalin are revealed in 1956, leaving the American Communist Party in utter disarray.

In 2012, Miriam's son Sergius Gogan visits Cumbow, Maine, a small college town where Cicero Lookins, Douglas's son, is on the faculty, for information regarding his parents, of whom he has no memory, they having spent most of their time dedicated to their causes, including their fatal support for the Sandinistas, and also of his cousin Lenin "Lenny" Angrush, who died in a mob hit.

Cicero is mostly uncooperative, resentful at the surfacing of strong negative memories of Rose as the Lookins' secret homewrecker and his harsh mother substitute during his adolescence.

In the summer of 1960, Lenny tries to exploit his in with Bill Shea, bringing a Tommy Gogan tape of a proposed anthem for the forthcoming New York City Continental League team, to be known as the Sunnyside Pros (short for "Proletariats").

In 1940, Albert Zimmer gives a rousing, inspirational speech to a beginning Jewish commune in New Jersey, supposedly where he and Rose may themselves move to.

Sergius had met her the night before, amazed that Lydia was playing his father's music, which she explains was a forerunner for the Occupy movement.

In 1978, Lenny sold the IRA some fake Krugerrands: identical gold content, but free of the taint of apartheid.

Before leaving the Sandanista-leaning León, Miriam writes a letter to a friend, saying that if she does not live, make sure Rose does not get custody of Sergius.

Sergius, in trying to board, is treated as highly suspicious by security: he took more than an hour from entering the airport to finally checking in.