On the Fourth of July, 1914, Polish Jewish immigrant Sam Krichinsky arrives in Baltimore, Maryland, dazzled by fireworks, parades, and patriotic displays. When he shows up at his four brothers’ last known address, a man whose job is “breaking in” new shoes walks him to their new row house in the Avalon neighborhood. Now, on Thanksgiving Day, sixty years later, Sam tells his grandchildren about that day, and how all five Krichinsky brothers became wallpaper hangers, played violins in a band on weekends, and collected money among themselves to bring more Krichinskys to America. One night in a ballroom, Sam is entranced by a girl named Eva, and marries her. One of the five brothers, William, dies of influenza. Around the large Thanksgiving table each year, Sam retells his stories, but his brothers Nathan, Hymie, and especially Gabriel dispute many of the details. Gabriel argues over whether they brought their father to America in 1925 or 1926, and Sam’s grown son, Jules Kaye, remembers only that the Krichinsky patriarch, whom he expected to be a giant, was tiny: “He’s shorter than me, and I’m only six.” Besides the four surviving brothers and their wives at the table, there are Jules and his wife Ann; Gabriel’s son, Izzy Kirk, and his wife Dottie; and several children, including Michael Kaye. Cousins Jules and Izzy, who changed their surnames to Kaye and Kirk, discuss going into business together. A month later, before Christmas, Jules takes his son, Michael, on his rounds as a salesman. He explains that he became a salesman because work is always available, and it is more dignified than paperhanging. That evening, however, Michael watches his father being mugged and stabbed on the street. As Jules recuperates at home, the family brings him a new television set, and everyone expectantly watches a test pattern on the screen. Sam declares that television lacks “what radio has.” In the kitchen, Izzy and Jules discuss selling household goods out of a store, instead of on the street. At school, when Michael is sent to the principal’s office over his confusion between the meaning of “may” and “can,” Sam hurries to the school and argues about the intricacies of the English language. Jules has a revelation: He and Izzy will sell only televisions at their new store. They open Kirk & Kaye’s, with wall-to-wall TV sets, and as soon as the test patterns give way to programs like The Howdy Doody Show, television grows popular and the cousins thrive. Izzy and Jules move their own families, as well as Sam and Eva, from Avalon to the suburb of Forest Park, Maryland, where their houses are on opposite sides of the street. Now the dinner table is smaller, with only Jules’s family and Sam and Eva, and they leave their meals half finished to watch skit comedian Milton Berle on the living room television. Jules says that he and Izzy will be absent more, because they must keep the store open during evenings to stay competitive. Sam’s three brothers, still living in Avalon, rarely visit because the suburbs are too far away. At bedtime, Ann, tired of Eva’s overbearing personality, asks Jules to help his parents move to their own house. One day, the Red Cross telephones Eva to inform her that Simka, her long-lost brother who survived a German concentration camp, has been looking for her. At the Krichinskys’ periodic “family circle” in the old neighborhood, the two older generations discuss family business, including which charities to support, and decide to bring Simka to America. One hot summer night, when Sam takes the children to a park to watch fireworks, he retells his old story about arriving in 1914. Sensing their disinterest, he tells about owning a nightclub and bartending on the night Jules and Izzy came in with their new brides to tell him they had gotten married. Demanding to see their marriage certificates, Sam becomes angry when he sees they have changed their names from Krichinsky to Kaye and Kirk. However, as the married couples join the club’s party atmosphere, Sam gives his blessing by embracing the brides. When Sam finishes the story, the children are asleep and the fireworks have ended. At the new, expanded K & K Store, Jules and Izzy decide on a slogan: “Guaranteed lowest prices in town.” They promise to match any cheaper prices the customers find elsewhere, but their Uncle Nathan does not understand how the concept could be profitable. Ann offers to drive Eva home, but Eva insists that a streetcar would be safer. However, after Ann stops at a gas station, a streetcar runs off the tracks and hits her car, prompting Eva to tell her later that streetcars cannot be trusted. When Jules tells his father he printed fliers to advertise the new store, Sam insists nobody will pay attention to something they get for free. However, the next morning, Jules and Izzy find a line of people waiting at the store. Sam and Eva go to the train station to meet Simka, his wife, Gittle, and their child, Elka, who speak only Yiddish. At the next Thanksgiving family dinner, which stretches from room to room at Jules’s house, the older generation speaks Yiddish with the newcomers, confusing Ann, Dottie, and the children. After waiting for Gabriel and his wife to arrive, they finally carve the turkey. When Gabriel arrives, he is outraged they started without him and storms out, refusing to return to the suburbs. Later, Jules and Izzy open a “discount warehouse,” with “no frills.” Sam tells Simka the family will help him get his own house, but when Sam discusses Simka at the next family circle, several members complain that he is not a Krichinsky, and Gabriel rants about the family not waiting to carve the turkey. Izzy and Jules end the discussion by volunteering to get Simka on his feet. As Sam resigns from the family circle and walks out, Gabriel admonishes him for having no respect, even though his brothers brought him to America in 1914. With Ann expecting a new baby, Sam decides it is time he and Eva move out. As Sam wallpapers the new baby room, he shows Michael how to do it, but emphasizes that he should never paper walls for a living. When Simka moves to New Jersey to manage a farm, the Krichinskys criticize his choice to leave the family so soon. Michael and cousin Teddy Kirk drive with their fathers to the Fourth of July warehouse opening, and during the sales frenzy, the kids blow up a paper airplane with fireworks in the basement. Sparks set straw on fire, but the boys hastily stamp out the flames. That night, the warehouse burns down. The boys swear silence, but Michael takes the streetcar to his grandfather Sam’s house and confesses. At Sam’s insistence, Michael admits to his father what he did. Admiring his son’s honesty, Jules tells him the fire marshal pinpointed the fire’s origin on the fourth floor. Izzy later tells Jules they do not have insurance, because he cancelled the policy in order to pay for television ads. Izzy plans to declare bankruptcy and start from scratch, but Jules decides to become a salesman again and gets a job selling television commercials to retailers. Later, Eva collapses and is taken to the hospital. Rather than go to Thanksgiving dinner at Jules’s house, Sam stays with Eva. Jules, Ann, Michael, and the new baby, David, eat in the living room as they watch a TV show about a family having a traditional Thanksgiving dinner. At Eva’s funeral, Gabriel and Nathan do not attend, and Simka is unable to come. Sam wonders what happened to the family. He moves back in with Jules, and as time slips away, Sam calls his younger grandson Michael instead of David. Michael has gone to college. Jules laments to Ann that his father wets the bed. An adult Michael Kaye and his son, also named Sam, visit the ailing grandfather at a convalescent home, where he tells Michael that he is not supposed to name a child after a living grandparent. As Sam slips into memories of old days, young Sam watches television. The old man says, “I came to America in 1914.” Later, young Sam tells his father, “That man talks funny.” Michael describes how his grandfather came to America, which he describes as “the most beautiful place he’d ever seen.”