Rucksack is a single movement monodrama that interweaves two stories from Juliane Heyman's book From Rucksack to Backpack. The first story details her harrowing year and a half long escape from the Nazis, beginning with the arrest of her parents in 1 938. In semi-comic relief, her next story describes her first hiking experience just a few years later in the United States. The police arrest her and her girlfriend, believing them to be prostitutes because they were walking alone with backpacks! Apparently, hiking was only popular in the US after the 1 940s.

The parallels and confusion juxtaposing these two stories is meant to provide both a dramatic counterpoint as well as the urgent importance of allowing immigration in a free society.

The vocal part switches continually between three different styles: bel canto, rhythmic speech, and dramatic speech. Bel canto is exclusive to Julie's hiking story in the Poconos mountains. The speech is used mostly to relate her difficult journey of escape from the Nazis.