Synopsis
Aaron (38) is a respectable butcher and a member of the Ultra Orthodox Jewish community in Jerusalem. He is married to Rivkeh (28) and is completely devoted to his five children.
He owns a small butcher shop that he inherited from his father, and every morning since his father died, Aaron hangs up a sign that announces he seeks a helper. One day, a harsh rainstorm brings to his doorstep a handsome and homeless Yeshiva student, Ezri (19), whose comes upon the butcher shop by chance with a big bag hanging on his shoulders, and they begin to talk.
The following day Aaron discovers that Ezri spent the night on a bench on the street. Aaron takes pity on Ezri's and decides to be his patron. He hires him to work in his butcher shop, teaches Ezri the craft of slaughtering, and houses him in the shop’s back room. Aaron also introduces Ezri to the community, and invites him to eat meals in his house. Gradually, they become good friends.
One day, when they go to a remote "Mikve" (a scared ritual bath) an intimate moment occurs between them, and they make love.
From this moment onwards, Aaron knows no peace. He develops deep feelings towards Ezri. He spends more and more time with him, slowly neglecting his family and community life, and is swept away in a whirlpool of love and lust.
However, Aaron is a God-fearing man who greatly loves his family, and so he feels immense guilt and torment which he expresses in physical rituals of self-punishment.
When Rivkeh suspects that something is wrong with Aaron, she goes to Rabbi Vaisben (56) the head of the "Modesty Guards", a radical law authority in the Ultra-Orthodox community. The Modesty Guards start to follow Aaron and he begins to notice eyes wide-open observing him from each corner.
Aaron tries to put barriers between him and Ezri; once he even expels him from the store. However, each time he gives in to his love and passion and asks Ezri to return to him.
But finally, under the enormous pressure that Rivkeh and the Modesty Guards put on him, Aaron inevitably reaches a decision to commit an irreversible act…