Fact1: life of Cappadocian Greeks and Armenians of Kayseri is depicted including traditional cliff cave dwellings, Fact2: Stavros is entrusted by father with family 's financial resources in mission of hope, Fact3: witnesses is to work in carpet business of Turkish capital Constantinople father 's cousin, Fact4: own dream is to reach faraway land of opportunity, Fact5: offer of job in America result in deportation back to Turkey
Output: The film begins in the late 1890s. Cappadocian Greek Stavros Topouzoglou Giallelis, lives in an impoverished village below Mount Argaeus in Ottoman Turkey. Stavros witnesses the Hamidian massacres against Greek and Armenian Christians. The life of the Cappadocian Greeks and Armenians of Kayseri is depicted, including the traditional cliff cave dwellings in which Stavros grandmother lives. Stavros is entrusted by his father with the familys financial resources in a mission of hope to the Turkish capital Constantinople renamed Istanbul in 1930, where he is to work in the carpet business of his fathers cousin Harry Davis, although his own dream is to reach the faraway land of opportunity, America. His odyssey begins with a long voyage on a donkey and on foot through the impoverished towns and villages on the way to Constantinople. Due to his kind nature and naivete, he dissipates all the money and arrives at the cousins home penniless. The older man is deeply disappointed at this turn of events since he was counting on the infusion of funds to rescue his failing enterprise. Nevertheless, he attempts to salvage the situation by proposing that Stavros marry a wealthy merchants Paul Mann young daughter Linda Marsh. Stavros realizes that such a marriage would mean the end of his American dream and adamantly refuses, abruptly leaving the angry cousin. Now homeless on the streets of the capital, Stavros survives by eating discarded food and working at backbreaking and hazardous jobs. After nearly a year of scrimping and selfdenial, he has some savings, but an encounter with an enticing beauty Joanna Frank leaves him, once again, penniless. Sinking even lower, he now finds himself living in an overcrowded subterranean hovel, which becomes a scene of chaos and bloodshed when it is attacked with gunfire by authorities purportedly searching for anarchists and revolutionaries. Severely injured in the mayhem, the unconscious Stavros is thrown among piles of dead bodies slated for disposal into the sea. He subsequently topples from the cart transporting the bodies and painfully makes his way to the cousins residence. The relative takes pity on the young man and allows him to recover at his home. Deprived now of all resistance, Stavros agrees to marry his intended bride. Upon being questioned by her regarding his moodiness, however, he admits that he still plans to emigrate to America, using the dowry money to pay for his passage. At this point Stavros becomes reacquainted with Hohannes Gregory Rozakis, a young Armenian, whom Stavros aided with food and clothing during his original voyage to Istanbul. Hohannes informs him that he is being sponsored to America by an employer seeking labor. Stavros manages to secure his own passage with the aid of the middle aged wife Katherine Balfour of wealthy ArmenianAmerican businessman Artoon Kebabian Robert H. Harris, a client of his prospective fatherinlaw. He tells his intended bride that he cannot marry her, and subsequently embarks on the voyage on board SS Kaiser Wilhelm. There is, however, another major impediment— Stavros shipboard affair with Mrs. Kegabian is discovered. Her enraged husband lodges a criminal complaint against Stavros, and rescinds his offer of a job in America, which will result in deportation back to Turkey. As everything looks bleak, however, the tubercular Hohannes exchanges documents with Stavros, allowing him to enter America in Hohannes place. With the climactic image of the Statue of Liberty as the boatload of immigrants docks in New York Harbor, Stavros puts his tribulations behind him, starting out as a shoeshine boy and gathering the pennies and dollars that will eventually bring his family to the land where their descendants, including Elia Kazan, will have the chance to fulfill their potential.