Mendel and Hannah Shapiro, an elderly Jewish couple who run a small farm in New Jersey, must get money to meet their mortgage payment to the bank by the next day to keep their farm. Mendel calls their children, Mollie, in Philadelphia, and Morris, in New York, to come right away. His neighbor Michel believes that most children do not properly care for their parents and insinuates that Mendel's children would not come to visit if they knew that their parents needed money. Mendel, however, assures Michel that children are the best investment one can make.