Life was harsh in the town of Bialystok, particularly for a Jewish boy like Leyzer Zamenhof. But Leyzer thought he knew the reason for the anger and distrust. With every group speaking a different language, how could people understand each other? Without understanding, how could there be peace? Zamenhof had an idea: a "universal" second language everyone could speak. But a language that would be easy to learn was not easy to invent, especially when even his own father stood between him and his dream. Yet when at last in 1887 "Doctor Esperanto" sent his words into the world, a boy's idea became a community that spread across the globe.