Its answer is most unsettling. The only character able to find contentment is Hertz Grein, who moves to the ultra-Orthodox Me'ah Shearim neighborhood in Jerusalem. There is no such thing as a Jew without a beard and sidelocks, without a fringed ritual undergarment and a Gemara. Grein's woes are only the beginning of Singer's tale. Over the course of the novel, each character embarks upon his or her own journey in search of contentment.
None finds it.
There are more marriages, more affairs and more desertions in this book than it is possible to count. The one constant throughout the various escapades, however, is the haunting presence of the past and of Judaism. Every failure leads to deep soul searching, to penitence, to questioning one's relationship to God, and to vows to observe the commandments. What might be seen as a declaration of freedom from shtetl life, the choice not to be observant, is soon seen only as a sin-one of many sins made possible by Hitler. For every post-Holocaust declaration of faith, this is the responding chorus, echoing the doubts on everyone's mind, lurking behind everything.