As an elderly Jewish man sits in his dressing gown and opens a book, his two grandchildren, Rachel, a girl of about fifteen, and Moishe, her younger brother, arrive for a visit. After the children say that they came despite their mother's admonition against going out alone in the dark, their grandfather talks to them about the Torah , the Bible, and he cautions Rachel that what she sees with her young eyes is not necessarily the truth, as she does not yet understand about the heart. He then tells the following story, which begins in the years before World War I: Mr. Kruger, the president of a New York synagogue, wants to arrange for his son Milton to marry Ruth Esterin, the daughter of the synagogue's cantor, but Rachel thinks that Milton is a "fathead." Benjamin Resanov, a newly-arrived immigrant, wanders in the city destitute and penniless. David Adler, an acquaintance from Russia, recognizes Ben in the park, and Ben tells David that he escaped from Russia after the Cossacks searched for him because of his writings. David arranges for Ben to get a job, and Ben soon begins to live with a family in the same tenement as Ruth. They meet when she comes to babysit one night while he is studying, and they soon fall in love, as she teaches him English and learns Russian from him. One Sunday, when the Krugers, who have become wealthy and moved to Riverside Avenue, visit Ruth's family, Milton tries to flirt with Ruth, but she rebukes him. When her father asks if she can choose a better husband than Milton, she reveals that she has already chosen one. Ruth then goes to Ben's apartment to tell him that her father is forcing her to marry, and when the cantor arrives to talk to Ben alone, Ruth overhears him ask Ben to sacrifice his love for her because he has little to offer her. Ruth intrudes and confesses that she cannot be happy without Ben, and her father warns that if she disobeys him, he will disown her. Even though Ben had been married in Russia, he marries Ruth, as he believes his wife Esther to be dead. Sometime later, Ben has become a successful journalist and Ruth is pregnant. Her father, heartbroken that she has rebelled, will not forgive her. Ben receives a letter from Esther saying that she has been taken to a prison in Kiev. As the Czar's reign is on the verge of collapse, she asks for him to return. Ruth is shocked, and after Ben tells her about his escape, she says that he must return because Esther's need is greater than her own. At the boat, as he is to leave for Russia, Ruth holds back the words that might keep Ben with her and instead kisses him goodbye. To avenge Ruth's rebuke of his son, Kruger compels the cantor to officiate at his son's lavish wedding. The cantor imagines Ruth as the bride, then, when Kruger taunts him that Ruth married a man who already had a wife, Esterin quits his job. Ruth, who is depressed, leaves her home because of neighbors' gossip. She finds work in a sewing factory and has her baby. Later, she returns to her parents' home with her baby and reconciles with her father. They go to the synagogue, where Ruth mouths the words of the service as she dies. Although Moishe has fallen asleep, Rachel is greatly affected by the story. Her grandfather comforts her and tells her, as the Torah commands, to listen to her mother, then she'll understand the world, which has so much that is terrible and difficult in it.

-- tcm.com