This story of the personal journey of the filmmaker in search of her ethnic roots, identity, and family history in Ukraine is set against an investigation of civil liberties and cultural difference in a society on the verge of opening itself to the world in the post-glasnost era. Issues of human rights, anti-Semitism, homophobia, and feminism come to the fore as Hammer meets relatives in her grandmother's village, interviews feminist and gay activists, records public ceremonies and ethnic celebrations, and visits Babi Yar, site of the massacre of thousands of Ukrainian Jews. Visually compelling and politically incisive, Hammer’s portrait of a nation becomes a deeply personal and socially revelatory document.

On October 11, 2001, in Times Square, New York City, an ad hoc group of artists named Our Grief Is Not a Cry for War silently demonstrated for peace at a time when the nation was clamoring for war and sacrificing its own civil liberties. Hammer documents the demonstration and, in so doing, makes her own contribution to the national dialogue of post–September 11.