In a book that is part memoir, part travelogue and part family history, Knisley not only tries to connect with her grandparents, but to reconcile their past and present selves. She is aided in her quest by her grandfather's World War Two memoir, which is excerpted. Readers will identify with Knisley's frustration, compassion and fears, and her attempts to come to terms with mortality, as she copes with the stress of travel complicated by grandparents' frailty.