In a Central European shtetl in the nineteenth century, times are getting hard, as the community has lost many of its men to emigration and is facing a crisis of modernization. Dovid, a handsome, poor young Jew plans to build a railway station to put the town back on the map, and meanwhile is wooing widow Leah. Simon is the town outcast, living on the fringes and often blamed for crop failures. He is easy prey for anti-Semitic aristocrat Maximilian Hase, who persuades Simon to spy on the villagers and help him foil Dovid's railway plan.