Zvi Arbel is an Israeli historian whose field is Jewish history. His chosen topic of research is the Petliura massacres of Ukrainian Jews in 1918-1920. Arbel's work is read by the poet Shmuel Foiglman, a Holocaust survivor who sends Arbel a volume of his own poetry in Yiddish. The relationship that develops between the two men is one of ambivalence and fascination; the reserved Israeli historian is alternatively affectionate and resentful towards the enthusiastic but tormented poet. Despite his ambivalence, Arbel is manipulated into helping Foiglman. He embarks on an effort to get Foiglman's poetry translated into Hebrew, and as Foiglman begins to monopolize more and more of his time and resources, Arbel ignores all the warning signs of the effect this is having on his marriage; his wife Nora cannot be dissuaded from her feelings of revulsion towards Foiglman. As the poet unintentionally drives a wedge between them, Arbel and Nora's long and contented marriage goes sour, and in Megged's blend of past and present, lust and nostalgia - tragedy becomes the only way out.