E L Doctorow's novel, "The Book of Daniel", written in 1975, is, according to the author himself, a fictive account of what might have happened to the children of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg when the time came for them to take their places in the world.

At the same time he is very firm that the book,and now the film, are not about the Rosenberg case, that 'Daniel' is not historically accurate, and that both works are about family relationships rather than about political positions.

Still, the parallels are obvious, and it is in the historical scenes which tell the story of Paul and Rochelle Isaacson, that "Daniel" shows its greatest impact. Juxtaposed to these is the attempt of Daniel, their son, to come to terms with his personal history, and we enter the film in the mid 1960s, a time of political activism throughout the world, when Daniel is unable to take part in any aspect of political life.

Confused by his own doubts and memories, he embarks on a journey into self-discovery, picking up each thread of his life and of his parents' and tracks down the people who knew them or knew about them.