The story of "In America" is inspired by the emigration to America in 1876 of Helena Modrzejewska, Poland's most celebrated actress, accompanied by her husband, Count Karol Chlapowski, her fifteen-year-old son, Rudolf, the young journalist and future author of "Quo Vadis", Henryk Sienkiewicz, and a few friends; their brief sojourn in Anaheim, California; and, Modrzejewska's subsequent triumphant career on the American stage under the name Helena Modjeska.