Sixteen-year-old Arik is at loose ends one summer when he gets a job offer from a mysterious old friend of his father's named Yankele Bride. Bride, a Holocaust survivor, makes his living as a matchmaker, uniting luckless souls. He hires Arik to scout potential clients throughout the bustling port city. Arik is intrigued by Brides's line of work. The diverse characters he meets on the job open his eyes to a world of wonder, pain and longing, offering him glimpses into unspeakable darkness and the depths of human love. There is Clara, a beautiful, fragile woman whom Bride loves from afar; Sylvia, a survivor of Josef Mengele's Nazi experiments who yearns for a husband; and Meir, a librarian, whose search for love leads him to commit an extraordinary act of malice. Even Arik falls in love for the first time, a development that brings surprising consequences.