Born in a small, impoverished town in northern Italy, Evo J. DeConcini enjoyed school and wanted nothing more than to further his education. He followed his older brothers to America in 1946, at the age of fourteen, eager to take advantage of the opportunities offered by this new world. As he worked toward a bright future in America—learning English, going to graduate school, and eventually entering the political realm—he also strengthened his ties to the past by researching his family history. A True Story jumps backward and forward in time, detailing the lives of the DeConcinis in sixteenth-century Europe and turn-of-the-century America, returning to Evo J.'s life as he continued to pursue the American dream.