In a small Lithuanian town an elderly man goes about his day. Few remember his name hitting the headlines 40 years ago, his portraits hanging in people’s houses and his story spearheading a change in the U.S. legislative policy. It happened in 1970, on the eve of Thanksgiving Day. A meeting took place in an open sea in the Atlantic Ocean between the Soviet fishing ship Sovetskaya Litva and The Vigilant, an American Coast Guard cutter. As the representatives of both sides held their discussion, a sailor from the Russian ship jumped five meters over the icy water landing on the deck of the U.S. ship. Seeking political asylum he was denied by the U.S. authorities. The Russians came aboard the cutter and evidently hauled the defector back after beating him unconscious while Americans stood by. Next day one US sailor decided to report it and media took up the story. Demonstrations with burnings of Soviet flags erupted all over the U.S. The international media sternly criticized the incident as a most distressing mistake in the history of the States. The defector- Lithuanian Simas Kudirka - was sentenced to 10 years in Soviet political prison camp where he became a symbol of man’s irrespressible craving for freedom. Many across the globe expressed their support to such extreme that a Canadian attempted to hijack a plane in Finland to save Simas. It wasn’t fruitful until accidental discovery of Simas’ mother being born in New York and Simas, as a son born out of wedlock, was immediately entitled to the American citizenship. U.S. President G. Ford personally demanded the release of the American citizen from the Soviet prison. Simas and his family arrived to live in the States and was suddenly catapulted into fame, touring the country as a celebrity. Despite his dramatic escape to freedom eventually he abandoned his American dream. 30 years later Simas returned to Lithuania to settle in a small town. He still struggles to work out the real reason why he made a fatal leap.