Shaindel, the elderly widow of a dead kabbalist, seeks out her former assistant Isaac to help launch her debut as the new kabbalist of the courtyard. Isaac puts aside his own career plans (he's about to receive his rabbinic ordination) and gladly agrees to help with all the people flocking to the courtyard with their problems. He thinks the lady will be the same deeply warm, behind-the-scenes and discreetly wise woman he recalls from their old courtyard days. But he is shocked and unnerved to discover a very different Shaindel who has a kabbalistic mind of her own, and who throws all his ideas about women, mysticism, and his career into disarray.
