Melesse describes his family tree. A child, he worked as a shepherd. He describes incidents that took place while he shepherded, such as theft and encounters with hyenas. He talks about his studies and the housework that interrupted his studies and caused him to drop out of school.

Melesse describes the first waves of immigration to Israel via Sudan and the yearning for Israel. His sister immigrated to Israel. They lost track of his uncles who immigrated. During this period, the previously warm relationship with their Christian neighbors deteriorated and became racially-charged and violent.

At that time, a wave of forced conscription began. Jewish teenagers, including Melesse, hid away from their houses. When he was 12 years old, Melesse was kidnapped and forcibly conscripted into the army of the Derg regime. He was taken for basic training in Gojjam. During the basic training, he dug a tunnel under the base’s fence and escaped with other soldiers from the province of Gondar. He describes the trials and tribulations the group endured, the many hours of walking, the wild animals they encountered, the hunger, and their fear of being caught. Melesse and his friends were caught while crossing a fast-flowing river in Bahar-Dar. They were returned to the base, where they were tortured.

After completing his basic training, Melesse was assigned to a commando paratroop unit and transferred to a base in Sidamo. There he underwent another six months of special training, at the end of which he was stationed to serve in a back-up force in the city of Harar. His unit was transferred and they fought in battles against rebels in the province of Tigray. During this fighting, Melesse lost many of his friends.

During a patrol in the city of Mekelle, the car Melesse was travelling in was blown up. Out of the 20 passengers, only he and six others survived. He lay injured for three days, with no food, water, or aid. Finally he was evacuated to the hospital in the city of Harar, where he was hospitalized for four months.

After he recovered, Melesse returned to the battlefield and was stationed on a base in the city of Adigrat in the province of Tigray. During the fighting, he heard that all the Jews of his village had left. He missed his family. He wanted to desert from the army, escape to Sudan, and migrate from there to Israel. He and another 12 people from the province of Gondar planned their escape for two weeks. They sold their guns, changed clothes, and set out on foot toward the Sudanese border, a week’s walk away. When they crossed the border, they were stopped for investigation and were tortured by the Sudanese soldiers. In the end, one of the group informed the soldiers that Melesse was a Jew and had led them over the border.

Melesse spent eight months in a Sudanese jail. During one of the rounds of torture, he fainted and was taken for treatment in the hospital. He met a nurse from the province of Gondar who smuggled him to the Jewish camp in Gadarif.

In Gadarif, Melesse searched for his relatives, but they  were not there. He learned that the route of immigration to Israel via Sudan had been closed. He dressed as a merchant, returned to Gondar, and began to trade in merchandise he had brought from Sudan.

Melesse contacted the consulate in Gondar, and learned that Zimna Berhani was the person dealing with immigration to Israel, in collaboration with the Jewish Agency. He demanded to talk to Zimna to obtain the necessary permits for immigration to Israel. While waiting for the permits, he worked with Zimna in settling Jews from village areas in lodgings in the city of Gondar. After six months, the long-awaited permits arrived. Melesse travelled to Addis Ababa and immigrated from there to Israel.