In 1975, when a Connecticut family man learns of his scam-artist father’s death in a Tijuana hotel, he relives his tumultuous youth and the schemes that kept his family moving around Europe, the Middle East and beyond. A true story.

SYNOPSIS:

1975, Connecticut. RAYMOND DAYAN (37), a family man, receives an unexpected call from his brother, DAVID (42), informing him of their father’s death in a Tijuana hotel. They fly down to Mexico to arrange the body’s return for a family funeral on the East Coast and discover that he died from a heart attack. Raymond informs David that their Mother is having financial difficulties, but with the impending funeral and all the costs, they both don’t have a solution. While packing up Father’s possessions they discover a mysterious Swiss bank account, but David doubts there are any funds left there, and even if there is, they certainly won’t get anything out anytime soon (there’s no will, which means they’ll have to go through a lengthy legal process first and possibly even have to fly all the way to Zurich to deal with the bank).

Returning home just ahead of the funeral, a troubled Raymond recalls his tumultuous youth under MENACHEM (FATHER) and JULIA (MOTHER), plus three older siblings, fleeing one country after another following a fake aspirin scam in 1937 Cairo and a gambling scheme in Parisian taverns, not to mention ten-year-old David enduring months with Father in a rotten Turkish jail cell in Father's bold attempt to win himself a pardon. The Dayans move to British-controlled Palestine to build a new life, however, they just barely survive a literal warzone (1947 Arab uprising), not to mention abject poverty. Father employs ten-year-old Raymond to shoplift, but they’re caught and Father is sent to prison.

Following his release (and Israel’s independence in 1948), Father finds a job as a lottery ticket salesman and the family is granted a new apartment by the government. The kids, now including three younger sisters (seven siblings total), start to live a more normal childhood. But Father can’t resist another scam – this time, selling his own forged lottery tickets. He becomes a wanted fugitive by the Israeli police, and the family has to abandon their entire lives.

One by one, as they flee more countries, the older siblings leave the family, and Raymond (now a teenager) remains with his parents and the three younger girls. After a hilarious clock scam and ferry in Algeria and Mother almost abandoning her husband in Spain, they head to the most unusual destination so far: a farming community for Jewish WWII refugees in the Dominican Republic. A frustrated Mother is driven to the brink there, and after violent fights, they separate – Mother and her young daughters return to Israel, and Raymond (now 18) joins his older brother David in New York.

Father becomes a travelling salesman, peddling cheap watches for years throughout Central and South America, then Spain. It is there, in 1962, that he discovers his big problem: Israeli consular authorities require him to return to Israel to get a new passport, or else he cannot travel anywhere. But fearing the Israeli police, he’ll never return, and so is stuck in Spain. His watch sales are profitable, but despite Raymond’s insistence over a number of years, he refuses to send any support to Mother and the children in Israel. Pressure mounts on Father from Spanish authorities, and, in 1970, Raymond gets a surprise visit – Father arrives in Connecticut – after forging his own passport.

Father makes a deal with Raymond: he’ll finally start sending support to Mother if Raymond sponsors his green card. Raymond agrees. However, after six months, not only has Father not sent her a cent, he’s also started a new scam on the East Coast, right in Raymond’s backyard. An irate Raymond kicks him out of his house. Father flies overseas and makes his way to Tijuana.

Following an emotional funeral in 1975 New York, Raymond is still intent to reclaim any funds from the mysterious Swiss account. But the situation remains unchanged: they will have to go through a lengthy legal process first, and possibly even present themselves to the Swiss Bank in person. After straight-shooter Raymond is reminded by one of his sisters how he boldly broke the rules during his youth to help his family, he summons up his courage and initiates a final scam himself, impersonating his father to get the Swiss to send any remaining funds (they’re unaware of his death).

Raymond receives the funds, but the sum is mediocre. In a final, ironic twist, he finds a legal way to hold Father to his old promise: since Mother never divorced him, Raymond manages to obtain, based on the green card he sponsored years before, monthly widow’s benefits from the Social Security Administration. In so doing, Raymond has the last word on how his family has been treated: finally, posthumously, Father begins paying support to his devoted wife.

In the denouement we learn of David’s tragic death from multiple myeloma in 1984 and Mother’s passing in Tel Aviv in 1988. We conclude with Raymond’s 60th birthday in 1997 – a family reunion with his five sisters, all their children and grandchildren.