Idith Zertal boldly interprets a much-revered chapter in contemporary Jewish and Zionist history: the clandestine immigration to Palestine of Jewish refugees, most of them Holocaust survivors, which was organized by Palestinian Zionists just after World War II. Events that captured the attention of the world, such as the Exodus affair in the summer of 1947, are seen here in a strikingly new light.

At the center of Zertal's book is the Mossad, a small, unorthodox Zionist organization whose mission beginning in 1938 was to bring Jews to Palestine in order to subvert the British quotas on Jewish immigration. The Mossad's modes of operation, its ideology and politics, its structure and history, and its collective human profile here are scrutinized as never before.

Zertal's story sweeps across four continents and encompasses a range of political cultures and international forces. But beneath this story unfolds a darker, more complex plot: the special encounter between the Zionist revolutionary collective and the Jewish remnant after the Holocaust.