The year is 1953 and Hen­ry Saltz­man, an Amer­i­can­ized Jew look­ing for his first job as a high school Eng­lish teacher, unex­pect­ed­ly finds him­self con­fronting a room­ful of intense ten-year-old boys in a Hasidic (Sat­mar) Brook­lyn yeshi­va. Assim­i­lat­ed Saltz­man is pro­found­ly chal­lenged by their prej­u­dices and fears about the world out­side their close-knit com­mu­ni­ty and vows to help them become not just good Jews, but good Amer­i­cans. In the process, he learns from them as well. Based on the author’s own expe­ri­ence, the nov­el takes the read­er inside the alien world of Hasidic Judaism, in its ear­ly years in Amer­i­ca, with humor, warmth and deep affection.