The children in the story came from vastly different backgrounds. Some were recent arrivals from refugee camps in Ethiopia and Somalia; others were second generation Cambodian students, others had recently arrived from conflicts in the former Yugoslavia and Russia and Guatemala. The documentary was specifically focused on how Reiche utilized the arts and a multicultural curriculum to honor the childrens' backgrounds of origin while helping them acquire English language skills and integrate into aspects of contemporary American culture they would need to succeed in school.