Artist Florian Durzynski immigrates alone from Poland in 1929 and ends up in West Town, part of Chicago's Polish community of 450,000 people. He establishes himself as a portrait painter but then finds artistic opportunity in a form of art he had never considered. Although he succeeds in his artistic endeavors, he has an impediment that makes him ask, "Why me?" and a recurring feeling of loneliness that makes him ask, "Who am I?" and "Where do I belong?"