This is the story behind the headlines we read every day, the heart-wrenching reality of modern life, where terrorists reign and average citizens find themselves at the intersection of politics and history. Living in Jerusalem, Elise Margulies always fears for the lives of her husband, cancer specialist Dr. Jonathan Margulies, and their daughter, Ilana. Then comes the day when Jon and Ilana fail to return home from her ballet recital. His bullet-ridden car is found empty on the side of the road hours later. Elise, in the last stages of a difficult pregnancy, desperately calls her grandmother Leah in America for help and unknowingly revives a decades-old oath that transcends both time and place. Over the course of five terror- and hope-filled days, ordinary people join the front lines against terrorism, and the ties that bind two generations forge a potent alliance against contemporary evil.