A social barrier that European immigrants must overcome is language.

Pauli's ordeal with immigration officials on Ellis Island is an example.

Inability to communicate in fluent English also contributes to immigrants' joblessness and exploitation. Members of the Crown family speak English, but they retain their fluency in German.

Because Paul is intelligent, he soon communicates well enough, but his accent labels him as a foreigner. Immigrants cling to their cultural traditions of food preferences, Christmas celebrations, and suspicion of other ethnic groups. Some change the spelling of their names, as do the Crowns, and time and experience assimilates them into American society.

Another social concern throughout the book is that of the status of women, who must submit to the authority of their fathers, their brothers, or their husbands, or pay the price of rejection, deprivation, or social ostracism. In Germany, Lotte escapes her abusive husband...