Act 1: The play opens with Lala decorating the Christmas Tree in the Freitag/Levy living room. Boo then comes into the room and bugs Lala about getting a date to Ballyhoo because with only two weeks away she is afraid her socially awkward and unpopular daughter will not find a date in time. Reba also confesses that Sunny doesn’t have a date either. As the two widows talk about their children, Adolph walks in with Joe Farkas who just moved down from Brooklyn to work at the Freitag’s family bedding company. Lala doesn’t hesitate in trying to hang out with Joe in order to get him as her Ballyhoo date. Joe, however, quickly claims that he must go home because he has an early train to catch the next morning. A few days later, the scene opens with Joe checking up on Sunny on the train. Joe and Sunny get along very well and Joe ends up asking her to Ballyhoo. As the scene then shifts back to the Freitag/Levy home, with Adolph talking about the events going on in Eastern Europe and his disturbance to Adolf Hitler’s attacks on Poland. Boo, however, comments that he should more concerned about what is going on with his own family and not the events happening overseas. As the conversation proceeds, it is interrupted by a phone call from Peachy Weil. As Act 1 continues, a few important scenes stand out. Sunny and Joe have a conversation about Sunny’s previous experience being discriminated against at the Venetian Club pool for being Jewish. Even with this experience, she is still in denial that religion makes a difference in the world. The audience also gets a good sense of Lala’s jealously towards Sunny when she finds out that Joe has asked her to Ballyhoo but is quick to point out to her cousin that she is going to Ballyhoo with a “Louisiana Weil” while she is going with a “New York Yid”
Act 2: Act 2 opens with Peachy officially calling Lala to ask her to Ballyhoo on Christmas day. That night Lala models her new dress that resembles the style of clothing worn by the characters in Gone with the Wind. The next evening finds Peachy and Joe awaiting their dates and the talks about the war start to emerge again. Based on Peachy’s response it is clear that he cares little about the events going on in Europe. The couples later leave for Ballyhoo. At Ballyhoo while Lala and Sunny are in the restroom, Peachy tells Joe that the Standard Club (where Ballyhoo is being hosted) is restricted to German-Jews and not open to people like Joe, the “other kind” of Jew. Joe leaves the party furious and leaves Sunny wondering what happened. Later that night Joe comes over to Sunny’s home and they have a discussion about the discrimination that Jews face which ends with Joe leaving after accusing Sunny of “Jew hater talk”. Peachy also later shows up at the Freitag/Levy home but he ends up proposing to Lala. Lala quickly accepts and her and Boo are ecstatic. The final scene takes place one week later with Joe and Sunny back on the train. They have a long discussion over what transpired the other night and both realize that they enjoy being with each other and that they both have improvements that can be made. The play ends with Joe telling Sunny to think of “something good” which leads to Sunny dreaming about her and the rest of the family sitting around the dinner table celebrating the traditions of Sabbath.