Sam Gold (Jesse Eisenberg), is a mild-mannered 20-year-old Orthodox Jewish man who lives with his large family in the Borough Park section of Brooklyn. Sam works in his father's fabric store while studying to be a rabbi. He and his family hope to arrange a marriage for him with Zeldy Lazar (Stella Keitel). However, Sam's family is much poorer than the Lazars, and he worries he will be unable to provide for them.