Scarcity & sharing
Well into the 20th century, many Jewish communities, particularly across Eastern Europe, were too poor or too persecuted to own their own Torah scroll, and shared a single one between congregations.
The story
A delivery job with a passport
For centuries, especially across Eastern Europe, many Jewish communities were too poor or too persecuted to own a Torah scroll, and shared a single one between them. Today, some American synagogues have so many surplus scrolls they use them as decoration.
So when a small, historic Jewish community is confirmed in Kaifeng, China, Cal's rabbi sees an opportunity: send one of the spares. The problem is who he sends it with. Cal is a recently laid-off, checked-out husband and father who hasn't set foot in a synagogue in years.
Cajoled out the door by his teenage kids and his no-nonsense, high-powered attorney wife, Cal sets off with the scroll strapped into the seat beside him. Literally: airlines won't hold a seat empty, so the Torah has to fly as a passenger. A simple delivery spirals into a transcontinental misadventure, from New York to Los Angeles to Tokyo to Shanghai, where his hired guide turns out to be a translator who has already gambled away their travel money to an enormous, unreadable Scotsman.