Lindbergh gives a famous speech blaming Jewish people for inciting war, then resigns his Army commission rather than serve under FDR.

Sandy and Philip wake to hear their parents shouting after a radio broadcast announces Lindbergh has won the Republican presidential nomination.

Rabbi Bengelsdorf speaks at a Madison Square Garden rally and publicly defends Lindbergh as a secret American patriot rather than a Nazi sympathizer.

Lindbergh defeats FDR in the presidential election, winning 57% of the popular vote.

Lindbergh travels to Iceland and signs an accord with Hitler guaranteeing peaceful relations between Germany and the United States.

The Roth family's reserved Washington DC hotel room is given away and the manager threatens to call the police when Herman protests.

Alvin enlists in the Canadian military to fight against Hitler in Europe, going against Herman's wishes.

The Roth family receives a letter from a British nurse saying Alvin has been seriously wounded and has lost his left leg below the knee.

Sandy is named a statewide recruiting officer for the Office of American Absorption following his summer on a Kentucky tobacco farm.

Herman receives a company letter ordering his family's relocation to Danville, Kentucky under the Homestead 42 program.

Walter Winchell is fired from his radio show by his sponsors and publicly announces his candidacy for the presidency.

Walter Winchell is shot and killed by an assassin while campaigning in Louisville, Kentucky, triggering riots across Jewish neighborhoods nationwide.

Lindbergh flies to Louisville, delivers a brief speech, boards his plane, and disappears eastward, never to be seen again.

Vice President Wheeler imposes martial law, has Rabbi Bengelsdorf and other prominent Jews arrested, and blames a Jewish conspiracy for Lindbergh's disappearance.

The First Lady broadcasts a radio address from the White House denouncing Wheeler's claims, dismantles his administration, and FDR wins a third term.

Philip Roth grows up in Newark as Charles Lindbergh, a Nazi sympathizer turned politician, wins the Republican nomination and defeats FDR in a shocking election. Lindbergh quickly signs peace accords with Hitler and Japan, and his administration begins rolling out policies that quietly target Jewish Americans. The Roth family's Washington DC trip ends with their hotel room confiscated, confirming that anti-Semitism is now openly tolerated. Cousin Alvin enlists in the Canadian army to fight Hitler and loses his leg, while Sandy is recruited into the government's Office of American Absorption as a youth spokesman. Walter Winchell becomes the voice of Jewish resistance but is assassinated while campaigning, and Lindbergh then vanishes in his plane, triggering martial law and a violent Jewish conspiracy narrative. The First Lady eventually dismantles the corrupt Wheeler administration and FDR wins a third term, ending the nightmare.

The headline events that transform America under Lindbergh.

Herman Roth turns down a promotion that would have made his family the only Jewish household in their new town, choosing community over money.

Lindbergh flies his plane to each of the 48 states, delivering a speech claiming the election is a choice between Lindbergh and war.

Rabbi Bengelsdorf publicly greets Lindbergh on the Newark airport tarmac and appears alongside him on the front page of the newspaper.

Sandy secretly keeps his portfolio of Lindbergh portraits hidden and asks Philip not to tell their parents he still has the drawings.

At the Lincoln Memorial, a young man calls Herman a loudmouth Jew after Herman reacts to a woman comparing Lincoln and Lindbergh.

Sandy returns from his summer on a Kentucky tobacco farm two inches taller, muscled from farm labor, and with a confident new authority.

Philip's mother secretly takes a department store job and deposits her earnings into a Montreal bank account as an emergency escape fund.

Herman visits the hospitalized Alvin and returns home in tears, telling the family Alvin has dwindled to 100 pounds and no longer wants to live.

Alvin is discharged from military care and arrives at the train station in a wheelchair, emaciated, foul-smelling, and radiating fury at Herman.

Philip overcomes his intense fear of Alvin's injured stump and takes over the daily task of rebandaging it, becoming his cousin's primary caregiver.

Uncle Monty visits and bluntly tells Alvin he has earned nothing; by nightfall Alvin breaks down weeping and accepts a job at the market.

The FBI interrogates Alvin's co-workers and implies he is a traitor, forcing Monty to fire Alvin, who then leaves Newark for Philadelphia.

Evelyn and Rabbi Bengelsdorf attend the White House state dinner for Nazi Foreign Minister von Ribbentrop, and Evelyn later boasts about dancing with him.

A riot erupts during Winchell's campaign speech in Boston, and Jewish synagogues are firebombed in Detroit in what Philip calls America's first large-scale pogrom.

Herman calls Shepsie Tirschwell and admits he was wrong to stay, and the two men begin discussing plans to move their families to Canada.

Before Lindbergh's rise, Herman Roth declines a lucrative promotion rather than uproot his family from their Jewish community, establishing his deep sense of belonging. As Lindbergh campaigns, Rabbi Bengelsdorf lends his public endorsement from the Newark airport tarmac, and Sandy secretly keeps his admiring portraits of the new president. Once Lindbergh takes office, the Roths endure escalating humiliations, from being called slurs at national monuments to watching Jewish families steadily leave for Canada. Alvin returns from the war broken and barely alive, and Philip slowly takes on the task of caring for his cousin's injured stump, forming an unlikely bond. The FBI begins monitoring the family, Alvin drifts toward criminals, and the Winchell riots signal open season on Jewish Americans in their own country. By the time riots consume Detroit and Herman finally admits he was wrong to stay, the dream of America as a Jewish homeland has been badly shaken.

The quieter moments that reveal how the Roth family's world is unraveling.

Philip has a nightmare in which his stamp collection transforms, with Hitler's face replacing Washington's and swastikas covering every national park stamp.

Alvin explains to Herman that Bengelsdorf's endorsement at Madison Square Garden has given non-Jewish voters permission to vote for Lindbergh without guilt.

Lindbergh signs a peaceful accord with Japan following his agreement with Hitler, completing his strategy of keeping America out of the war on all fronts.

Riding the bus home from Washington DC, Philip studies his mother's face and realizes for the first time that she looks Jewish, and therefore so does he.

Aunt Evelyn brings Rabbi Bengelsdorf to the Roth family dinner and he tells them that American Jews have their greatest-ever opportunity under Lindbergh.

Herman loses patience at the dinner table and tells Rabbi Bengelsdorf directly that Hitler is a monster and Lindbergh is a fool for trusting him.

An FBI agent stops Philip on the street and questions him about Alvin's conversations and activities, leaving Philip feeling he has stumbled into a trap.

Philip sees a covered body wheeled out on a stretcher from his building and is briefly convinced that his father has died, before realizing it is neighbor Mr. Wishnow.

Evelyn announces Sandy has been invited to the White House dinner as a showcase of Just Folks, and Herman throws her out of the house.

Sandy calls his parents ghetto Jews and refuses to skip the White House dinner, and Bess slaps him hard twice across the face.

The Tirschwell family announces it is departing for Canada in June, and Philip cannot get a straight answer from Mr. Tirschwell about what exactly they are fleeing.

Philip runs away in the night wearing Seldon's clothes with his stamp collection, stumbles in the dark, and is kicked unconscious by an orphanage horse, losing his stamps forever.

Alvin arrives at the Roth home with his fiancée to make peace, but dinner erupts into a violent brawl that leaves Alvin's wrist broken and several of Herman's teeth shattered.

Seldon calls the Roth home to say his mother has not returned from Louisville, and Bess learns that Mrs. Wishnow was beaten and killed in the riots there.

Philip discovers Aunt Evelyn hiding in the family cellar after Bess turned her away, and secretly brings her food without telling his mother.

From the start, Philip's anxious inner life registers the threat of Lindbergh's rise before adults can fully articulate it, beginning with a nightmare in which his cherished stamp collection is overtaken by swastikas. As the family is drawn deeper into the political crisis, small moments crack open larger truths: Alvin decodes Bengelsdorf's true purpose, Philip discovers his own Jewish identity reflected in his mother's face, and the dinner with Bengelsdorf ends with Herman confronting him directly. The government's intrusion into private life becomes undeniable when an FBI agent interrogates an eight-year-old Philip on the street, and the family fractures further when Sandy embraces the administration that is slowly dismantling everything Herman believes in. Philip's nighttime flight in Seldon's clothes and his loss of the stamp collection mark the end of his childhood innocence, and Alvin's violent return and Mrs. Wishnow's death complete the destruction of the world Philip knew. The novel closes with Evelyn hiding in the Roths' cellar and Philip quietly keeping her alive, a final image of a family surviving what history tried to do to them.

The discoveries, confrontations, and moments of reckoning that reshape the Roths.