Dov goes to an address given him by an Irgun recruiter, only to be caught in a police trap. Karen's young beau Dov Landau proclaims his desire to join the Irgun, a radical Zionist resistance group. During this time, opposition to the partition of Palestine into Arab and Jewish states is heating up. She has taken up the Zionist cause, much to the chagrin of Kitty, who had hoped to adopt Karen and take her to America to begin a new life. Kitty has grown very fond of Karen Hansen Clement, a young Danish-Jewish girl searching for the father from whom she was separated during the war. The British relent and allow the Exodus safe passage. The refugees stage a hunger strike, during which the camp's doctor dies, and Ari threatens to blow up the ship and the refugees.

When the British learn the refugees are in a ship in the harbor of Famagusta, they blockade the harbor and prevent it from sailing. Ari Ben Canaan, a Haganah rebel who had been a decorated captain in the Jewish Brigade of the British Army in the Second World War, obtains a cargo ship and smuggles 611 Jewish inmates out of the camp for an illegal voyage to Mandate Palestine before being discovered by military authorities. They anxiously wait for the day they will be liberated. Nurse Katherine 'Kitty' Fremont is an American volunteer at the Karaolos internment camp on Cyprus, where thousands of Jews-Holocaust survivors-are being held by the British, who will not let them go to Palestine. However, she ultimately falls in love with him and with his dream despite their religious and cultural differences. Kitty is initially naive about the conflict and hostile toward Ari's means of achieving his goals. Within this fray is widowed American nurse, Kitty Fremont. Regardless of the United Nations vote, the road to Ari's dream of a peaceful Jewish homeland in Palestine will be a difficult one because despite his own model community, extremist factions, both on the Jewish side and the anti-Zionist side, will never see living together in peace and advocate violence to achieve their own ends. His best childhood friend, Taha, is Palestinian and is now leader of the Palestinian section of the community. Ari grew up in a mixed Palestinian/Jewish community in Palestine. Ari commandeers a ship with 600 Jews, and after some obstacles, manages to make it to Palestine. In his mind, the easiest way to influence the United Nations vote is by sheer numbers residing in Palestine.

Ari Ben Canaan, a Palestinian Jew, wants to smuggle as many Jews as possible into Palestine. Until then, many Jews are exiled from much of Europe - especially Germany - and as they have no where to go, they are sent to detention camps among other places Cypress. The United Nations is contemplating taking a vote on creating a Jewish homeland in Palestine.

Following World War II, the life of the Jewish nation is uncertain.

Escaping exodus