The Yiddish story follows Getzel, a wanderer who ends up in a small village in Galicia (former Southern region of Poland) and finds a job with the shoemaker. He falls in love with the shoemaker’s daughter, Esther, but she already has eyes for a circus performer. When Getzel leaves for Warsaw Esther feigns interest in him so that he agrees to bring her along, but once there she reunites with and marries her love. Upon Getzel’s return to the village he is blamed for her disappearance.
