The WW II with Germans occupying Athens Greece.

And then during the British and American Liberation bombs dropping, bullets flying marching boots and hunger, all the backdrop of this dream of a young boy having lost his father, and his mother struggling to survive, to find a better life. The dream of freedom was ever present only to be tempered by the Greek civil war after the WW II.

Finally true freedom from was hunger, and economic squealer happened with the bold choice to drop everything (except for the shirt on his back) to a new life in the new world. This was filled with its own uncertainties but also excitement and promise for the future.