Emotional Arithmetic tells the story of three people who formed a life-long bond while housed at a detention camp during World War II that are reunited some 35 years later after being separated from one another. Jakob Bronski,a young Jewish man,took a shine to two youngsters,Melanie and Christopher,while they were interred,by the Nazis,at Drancy,a housing complex on the outskirts of Paris that was used as a detention camp for Jews. Drancy operated as a way station; once there,having your name put on the wrong list meant relocation to a death camp.