Joanna, brought up by her grandmother in the spirit of Orthodoxy, finished her studies in London and returned to a small town in Podlasie, the place of her birth. She knew she was doomed to an "intellectual desert" here, but she also felt she had a role to play. What role? She calls it a "search for truth". She researches the history of the borderland, her town and the people who once lived here, and these are often dramatic and controversial issues. That is why it is not easy for her. Attempts to get a job at the local school or community center ended in failure. She teaches young people, but she does it as a volunteer. She lives on the borderline between two worlds - the real one where she is still searching for her identity and clashes with the stuffy atmosphere of a small town and the unreal one which no longer exists - the Jews of Krynki whose memory she restores thanks to her voluntary work with the youth of Krynki.