Conflicts arise when Yisroel "Izzy" Jonigkeyt, a Chassidic Jew from Crown Heights, travels to San Francisco to visit his Polish-born Catholic friend Marek Wisniewski in order to ascertain why a Bay Area art scene iconoclast named Harry Kierk want to trash a lifetime's worth of his own work. As the visit progresses, Izzy and Marek discover for the first time how complicated past baggage affects their strange bond, and they quickly come to understand why Kierk is driven to destruction. Continued contacts with Marek's slightly anti-Semitic cousin Irek (who serves as their sole point of contact with Kierk) exacerbate these tensions.