Fleischman's autobiography tells the story of an immigrant Jewish family during the early twentieth century. The years of the Great Depression, vaudeville during its last years, and life aboard one of the smaller World War II naval ships are of historical interest. The publishing scene from the 1940s onward is treated insightfully.

Anti-Semitism does not seem to have been prevalent in the San Francisco of his youth. But Fleischman recalls that Henry Ford's blatant dislike of Jews caused Louie Fleischman to refuse even to ride in a Ford.

The national hero, Charles Lindbergh, came on the radio in the 1940s blaming all of the problems in Europe on the British and the Jews. It upset Fleischman and his family that a man of this stature could so readily accept such claptrap.