Leo Finkle, a 27-year-old rabbinical scholar living in New York, has studied for six years to become a rabbi and hopes to be ordained in a few months. Since an acquaintance has suggested that a wife might help his career, Finkle contacts a marriage broker named Pinye Salzman. The matchmaker has a disreputable air, but his amiable manner appeals to Finkle. The matchmaker leads him to the kitchen table, on which he spreads out six “much-handled” cards, each featuring a different unmarried woman. Salzman explains that these were carefully selected for Finkle, and that he has so many more at home that he has to keep them in a barrel. However, Finkle rejects Salzman’s first prospect due to her widowhood, and the second—a high school teacher named Lily Hirschorn—because she is 32 years old. The third, who is 19, seems to him suspiciously young to be going to a marriage broker. Finkle begins to have second thoughts about Salzman, who is getting a bit testy over his choosiness. Finally, Finkle sends him away.

The next evening, Salzman returns and claims to have found a “first-class” wife for him. The “bride” that Salzman offers is Lily, the 32-year-old teacher he showed him before, but whom he now claims to be 29.