This movie musical follows the family of Tevye the Milkman (Zero Mostel), a poor Jew in a Eastern European shtetl as his three oldest daughters fall in love and get married. Each daughter marries progressively less culturally acceptable men: the first marries a poor tailor, the second a Jewish Marxist revolutionary, and the third a Russian non-Jew. The movie also follows the relationship between Jewish and non-Jewish communities in Eastern Europe, starting with co-existance and ending up with downright hatred and ethnic cleansing. Other important characters in the movie include Tevye's wife Golda as well as the village matchmaker, whose suggestions are regularly ignored by Tevye's rebellious daughters.