In 1920s Boston, a Jewish boy in high school gets a job at Thompson's Market, a corner store in his neighborhood. One afternoon, about six months after he starts, Mr. Thompson brings in another boy his age and introduces him as Jerry, the boy's new coworker. The boys immediately get along. The store's basement, which they have to keep clean, becomes their favorite haunt. When Jerry starts to kill rats and insinuates that they should sneak extra food from the store down there to eat, the Jewish boy decides he has a lot to learn from his new friend. Soon, they become clerks, and their theft becomes increasingly brazen — they often steal food from under the vegetable counter and eat it together in the bathroom or the basement. Hijinks are common, as when they make the gastrointestinally disastrous mistake of eating pickled lamb's tongues and sweet cream together. Gradually, they start to talk about their families, in the course of which they get to know and accept each other's religions. One day, when the Jewish family's father loses his job and can't heat his house for winter, Jerry even "borrows" Mr. Thompson's wagon to bring them stolen firewood. The boys soon begin college, but they keep their jobs and their friendship. One day, Jerry takes his friend to the beach, where he tries to convince him to go up in a new plane with him. He refuses, which means that all he can do is watch when the plane crashes just seconds from its runway and kills Jerry and everyone else on board.