David Levinsky is a Russian Jew--part of a vast group who immigrated to New York in the 1880s. Orphaned and penniless, he settles on the Lower East Side, where every newcomer is sneered at by anyone who has been in America even a few months longer. But he makes his way up, step by step, mishap by mishap, plan by plan: from street peddler to small manufacturer to millionaire power broker in the ever-expanding business of mass-produced women's clothing.