From the bustling streets of Odesa to the vibrant cities of London, Montreal, New York, and San Francisco’s Jewish Fillmore District, Joan Moran’s captivating historical memoir of her mother weaves a vivid portrait of one woman’s quest for identity and freedom against the backdrop of a rapidly changing world.

This story blends history and religion as it takes the reader through an engaging saga about what it means to deny one's Jewish identity. Suddenly Jewish is not just one woman’s story—it's also the story of a family torn between tradition and rebellion, and the secrets that shape their lives: Rose, the matriarch, Esther, her rebellious daughter, and Joan, Esther’s daughter, who learns the secrets of her family at 19.

From her humble beginnings in 1911, Esther embarks on a journey in pursuit of reinvention. While living in the Fillmore, the Jewish district in San Francisco, Esther changes her name to Estelle and explores the dynamic landscapes of San Francisco in the 1920s, '30s, and '40. She ventures beyond the confines of her neighborhood, exploring the high-powered corridors of the Financial District, the secretive back alleys of the Tenderloin with its clandestine abortionists, the bohemian jazz clubs, and speakeasies of North Beach all the while dodging the subtle antisemitism that lurks beneath San Francisco's sophisticated landscape. When she falls in love and marries an Irish Catholic man from the Mission District, Estelle continues to excel in business while attending to two children.

When Joan, her daughter, falls in love with a Jewish law student at Berkeley, Estelle finally reveals the magnitude of her struggle with being identified as Jewish. She never wanted to be "the other." Joan negotiates her emotional response to her mother’s secret and her new identity.