It describes the life of two 15-year-old friends during World War II in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brookling. Danny wants to be a rabbi like his father, and Reuven, a secularized Jew, wants to be a mathematician. They become friends after a hard-fought baseball game.
The friendship is gradually developed and grows. Starting with a superficial and even negative knowledge, they discover their hobbies, readings, projects, future studies and professions. It is worth mentioning the good paternal-filial relationship. That of Danny, whose father is a more traditional asideo rabbi, and that of Reuven, who is a journalist, university professor, Zionist and more liberal. The atmosphere he describes is entirely Jewish with long discussions about the Talmud. He explains the origin of Danny's ancestors, Polish Jews, and the origin of Assidism, that are not Zionists (they do not want a secular State of Israel) but hope that with the coming of the Messiah the religious State of Israel will be re-established, which causes conflicts, especially after the Holocaust, and with the foundation of the State of Israel.
It is a story in which friendship, paternal-filial love, tolerance and religious intolerance stand out. It is the typical novel read by Jewish teenagers.