A young boy living in 1950s Connecticut learns the story of Samuel’s call from God in his Sunday school. In the story, Samuel, the caretaker for the high priest Eli, hears his name called three times in the night. Each time, thinking he is being called by the rabbi, Samuel enters Eli’s chambers, for Eli to say, “I did not call you”. After three calls, Eli tells Samuel that God might be trying to speak to him. Rattled by the story, the young boy lies awake each night wondering if God will call to him. He figures out how he will respond, and he wonders if he’d like to speak to God at all. At the same time, the boy confronts his father’s harsh strain of anti-theism, as well as the cultural associations of being a Jew in a 20th century WASP neighborhood. While trying to live a normal, areligious life, the boy struggles to maintain his day-to-day existence while also bearing the weight of divine questions. At one point, he decides he doesn’t want to hear from the Lord, for a conversation would detract too much from the rest of his life in school, sports, and family. At other points, he wants the Lord in his life, fearing death, the void, and the unknown.  Soon the boy is an old man struggling with insomnia. He lies awake in the night and grapples with the same questions he did as a child. By now, he has seen how Judaism can interweave into the rest of his life. But, staring death in the face, he can no longer see Judaism as a cultural epithet. He is grateful the Lord never called him, for letting him live his life, but now the big questions of faith are down the barrel, and he can’t abide much longer.