This is the saga of one immigrant's trials, tribulations and triumphs. He is only a teenager when he arrives on the shores of New York, almost penniless, cardboard suitcase in hand. He is alone, has no friends, speaks no English and has no job. What he does have is boundless optimism.
He gets involved with Cuban exiles training for the Bay of Pigs invasion. The mob offers him a job they think he can't refuse. The Army trains him to be a killing machine. He drinks, he gambles and he follows the dictates of his raging hormones.
He continuously tries to adapt himself to his new surroundings wherever and whatever they may be. Every time he thinks he is no longer a stranger he finds himself confounded by a new twist in his efforts to assimilate.