Leo Finkle is a rabbinical student in 1950s New York City, and after several years of study at the Yeshivah, he is worried. To find a congregation, a friend tells him, he will need a wife. So after a few days, Leo calls Pinye Salzman, a marriage broker. Later that week, Salzman comes over with files on six candidates, but Leo rejects them all — one is a widow, one is too old (thirty-two), one had a foot injury and so on. The next day, Salzman returns with shocking news. The thirty-two-year-old teacher is actually twenty-nine; he made a mistake when recording her age. Reluctantly, Leo agrees to meet her that weekend. Their conversation leaves him disappointed, as Salzman seems to have sold the woman, Lily, an idealized portrait of him as a mystical prophet. It also forces him to confront the fact that he has never loved anyone besides his parents, even God. He is so disturbed as to contemplate leaving the Yeshivah. Needless to say, Leo tells Salzman to stop coming around. He tries and fails to develop a more active social life on his own, so one day, he looks through the envelope of photos that Salzman had left on his table. They all strike him as different versions of Lily except one, a young woman in whose face he sees something real. A frantic hunt for Salzman leads nowhere, but when he comes home, the matchmaker is standing at his door. To his chagrin, Salzman refuses to connect him with the woman — she is wild, he says, she is dead now, she is his estranged daughter. One more conversation convinces him, however, and one night a few weeks later, Leo finally meets Stella. But, he wonders, was this really a serendipitous pairing? Or did Salzman plan it all to happen this way?