Philip Roth is just seven in the fall of 1940 when aviator Charles Lindbergh is elected president of the United States, having campaigned on an isolationist, “America First” platform. Lindbergh’s unseating of Franklin Delano Roosevelt sends shockwaves through Philip’s predominantly Jewish neighborhood in Newark, New Jersey. Lindbergh’s genteel diplomacy toward Adolf Hitler set Philip’s parents, Bess and Herman, on edge—they begin to worry that the anti-Semitism which has been simmering beneath the surface of American life is about to boil over. Even more confusing to Jewish people in Newark is the Conservative rabbi Lionel Bengelsdorf’s support of Lindbergh—and his declaration that as an “American Jew,” his loyalty is to his homeland. Philip and his friends, including the nerdy Seldon Wishnow and the fifth-grader Earl Axman, try to distract themselves from their parents’ anxieties. All of the games they play, however, revolve around war. Philip begins having nightmares in which all of the stamps in his treasured collection are covered in black swastikas.
In June of 1941, six months after Lindbergh’s inauguration, the Roths are reeling from the sudden departure of Alvin, Philip and his brother Sandy’s 20-year-old cousin, an orphan who has been the Roths’ ward for nearly seven years. Alvin has left for Canada to fight for the British in World War II. Amid increasing fears among Jewish people as the United States (led by Lindbergh) has all but endorsed Hitler’s authoritarian regime, the Roths decide to take a long-planned trip to Washington, D.C. The Roths hire a guide, Mr. Taylor, to take them around the city—but as the Roths tour Washington and Herman loudly speaks about the disgraces Lindbergh has brought upon America, he attracts negative attention from other tourists. After being called a “loudmouth Jew” at the Lincoln Memorial, Herman tries to keep his head high—but upon returning to their hotel, the Roths find that their belongings have been removed from their room and their reservation has been canceled. Herman is determined to finish the trip, and after checking into a new hotel, the Roths continue touring the city. After a confrontation with yet another anti-Semitic man at a diner, Herman loudly sings for all the patrons, displaying his unwillingness to back down from his rights as an American.
Back in Newark, the Roths continue to adjust to life under Lindbergh. The president’s administration has created the Office of American Absorption (OAA), whose programs undermine the stability of Jewish families and erase the power of Jewish constituencies across the country. Sandy, however, signs up to be part of an OAA initiative called the Just Folks program, which pairs young Jewish boys with families in America’s “heartland” for a summer. In spite of the Roths’ opposition to Sandy’s going, Bess’s sister Evelyn—who has recently been hired to work as Bengelsdorf’s secretary in his new position with the New Jersey OAA—calls Bess and Herman “Jews [who are] afraid of [their] shadow[s.]” Eventually, the Roths relent. Days after Sandy’s departure, the Roths receive a letter: Alvin has lost his leg in combat and will be returning home. Weeks later, when Sandy returns, he speaks reverently of life in Kentucky and tells Philip that he can’t wait to return. Meanwhile, Evelyn and Bengelsdorf—who have been having an affair—become engaged. The Roths host the rabbi at their house for dinner, and he and Herman clash. The next day, Evelyn calls Bess to inform her that the rabbi has selected Sandy to work in recruiting for Just Folks. Bess takes a job working in a department store. She funnels her earnings into a bank account in Montreal, worried that the family might soon be forced to flee to Canada. With Sandy and Bess always out and with Herman more on edge than ever, Philip is left alone much of the time. He and Earl begin a daily ritual of riding the city bus after school, “following Christians” in order to observe them.
In January of 1942, Alvin arrives home. Philip is obsessed with and terrified by Alvin’s stump, which continually erupts in sores due his prosthetic leg’s imperfect fit. As Alvin’s stump heals and his ability to get around improves, he begins shooting craps with a gang of youths including the crook Shushy Margulis. Alvin draws the ire of his Uncle Monty for failing to make something of himself. Monty all but forces Alvin to take a job at his produce store. In spite of the job, Alvin continues playing craps with Shushy. An FBI agent begins questioning the Roth family, cornering them separately while they’re out and about in Newark. The agent asks about Alvin’s habits—and whether he’s called anyone in the government “fascist.” Around this time, Seldon’s father, Mr. Wishnow, dies suddenly. The rumor is that he has hung himself, though Bess swears to Philip that he died of cancer. Alvin loses his job after the FBI agent questions other workers about him—Monty is indebted to the gangster Longy Zwillman, who doesn’t want Alvin causing trouble for the business. Alvin leaves for Philadelphia to work for Shushy’s gangster uncle.
As spring arrives, scandal breaks out: Lindbergh and his wife, Anne Morrow Lindbergh, are hosting a prominent Nazi, Joachim von Ribbentrop, at the White House. Bengelsdorf and Aunt Evelyn are invited—and Evelyn comes by the house to ask if Sandy can come with them. Herman kicks Evelyn out and tells her never to return. The next morning, the angry Sandy calls Herman a “dictator worse than Hitler.” Herman learns that Shepsie Tirschwell, his childhood friend and a projectionist at the nearby Newsreel Theater, is planning on fleeing to Winnipeg. Philip sneaks into the Newsreel one afternoon to see footage of Evelyn and Bengelsdorf at the state dinner. When the show is over, an attendant brings Philip up to the projectionist booth, where Shepsie keeps Philip until his father arrives to pick him up. Herman reprimands Philip for sneaking into the theater and strikes him across the face in the street.
As summer begins, the Roths receive a letter: Herman’s company, Metropolitan Life, is relocating him to Kentucky under the edicts of Homestead 42. Homestead 42 encourages families to move westward, incentivizing the trip with free land; unlike the original 1862 act, Homestead 42 is aimed only at Jewish families in coastal cities. Bess begins breaking down at the prospect of living in a rural town where people are hostile toward Jews. Philip travels to Aunt Evelyn’s office at the OAA one afternoon to beg her not to relocate them—and to send Seldon and his widowed mother instead. Aunt Evelyn assures Philip that life in Kentucky will be grand, and that all of Rabbi Bengelsdorf’s programs are for the betterment of American Jews.
As Bess urges Philip to spend more and more time with Seldon, Philip begins stealing clothing from him, secreting it away in a suitcase in the cellar alongside $20 he received from Alvin. After hearing a radio broadcast in which the Jewish journalist Walter Winchell declares that concentration camps are likely to come to America, Philip decides he must run away from home. Philip collects his suitcase and stamp album and sets out—but as he crosses a field filled with horses, he startles one, gets kicked in the head, and wakes up the next morning in the hospital. His beloved stamps are nowhere to be found.
Herman quits work in order to avoid moving out west under Homestead 42. He takes a job at Monty’s store working the night shift. Bess quits her department store job and Sandy stops speaking out against “ghetto Jews” so often. Meanwhile, Aunt Evelyn and Bengelsdorf get married, and the Roths are not invited to the ceremony. Seldon and Mrs. Wishnow are relocated to Kentucky under Homestead 42, and Philip is surprised at his grief when they leave. Walter Winchell, fired for his inflammatory words on his last broadcast, announces his candidacy for president and begins a speaking tour around the country shortly after Labor Day. Winchell is received well enough in the tri-state area, but in Boston, anti-Semitic riots break out. When Winchell reaches Michigan, an American “Kristallnacht” erupts across Detroit. The violence spreads quickly to the Midwest. On October 5th, Winchell is assassinated in Louisville, Kentucky.
Alvin returns to Newark the night after Winchell’s assassination with a fiancée, Minna Schapp, in tow. Alvin wants to make peace with the family he’s left behind—but when Herman accuses Alvin of being indifferent to Jewish suffering in America, Alvin points out his prosthetic as proof of his having “wrecked his life for the Jews” and then spits in Herman’s face. A horrible fight ensues. Afterward, Herman goes to the hospital for stitches while Alvin and Minna return to Philadelphia. Later that night, gunshots erupt in the street. The Roths stay with their new neighbors, the Cucuzzas, for the night, learning in the morning that a fight broke out between the Jewish police force of Longy’s gangsters and the Newark police. Herman calls Shepsie to ask for advice about emigrating to Canada. Philip fears his American childhood is over—yet over the next several days, an astounding series of events takes place: when Lindbergh’s plane disappears between a rally in Louisville and Washington, his vice president, Burton K. Wheeler, declares martial law in America. Rumors in the foreign press suggest that Lindbergh has traveled to Berlin to offer himself to the Nazis, and the German press retaliates by suggesting a Jewish conspiracy is behind Lindbergh’s disappearance. The FBI arrests Bengelsdorf, the First Lady, and a number of Jewish government officials. Several days later, after her release, Anne Morrow Lindbergh addresses the nation via broadcast and calls for Congress to remove Wheeler from office. Two and a half weeks later, FDR is elected to a third term. Lindbergh is never seen again, and the wreckage of his plane is never found.
On the first night of anti-Semitic riots across the country following the foreign press’s report, Seldon calls the Roths to report that his mother has not come home from work. Bess, over a series of long-distance calls, successfully calms Seldon down and secures help for him from the Mawhinneys, the family Sandy stayed with while in Kentucky with Just Folks—it turns out they live just miles from the Winshows’ new home. The next morning, Sandy and Herman set out on a drive across the country to collect Seldon and bring him home—his mother has been murdered in a riot in Louisville. Aunt Evelyn breaks into the cellar and attempts to squat there, insisting she knows “the truth” about the Lindberghs and their plot with the Nazis. According to Bengelsdorf, a crazed Aunt Evelyn tells Philip and Bess, Lindbergh and his wife long ago made a pact with the Nazis, who kidnapped their child Charles Jr. The Lindberghs agreed to run a puppet government in America in exchange for their child’s safety. After a fraught, fearful trip, Seldon, Herman, and Sandy arrive home safely. Seldon stays with the Roths for several months, taking up residence in the bed once occupied by Alvin. This time, though there is no stump to care for, Philip realizes that Seldon himself is the stump—and that Philip is his friend’s only hope of a “prosthesis.”
