Plot summary

The oldest of several siblings, thirty-four year old Italian-American Marty Piletti is a butcher in the Bronx. He is somewhat a sad man in his life not turning out the way he wanted. An academically intelligent man, he never chose being a butcher as a career, he having fallen into it as the responsible thing to do as the oldest. Regardless, he is thinking about buying the butcher shop where he works in the owner planning to sell. The biggest source of his sadness is while all his younger siblings are now married, some with children, he is still single, living in the family home with his widowed mother Teresa. While he, his best friend Angie and their other bachelor friends hang out together during their free time, sometimes cruising for girls but more often than not just wandering aimlessly, Marty has come to the conclusion that love is not in the cards for him in not having the model good looks that seems to attract girls. In addition, he has had enough heartache in being turned down time and again when he does put himself out there to no longer wanting to do it. Against his better judgment, he, on his mother's urging in wanting him to find a girl, goes out on Saturday night with Angie to the Stardust dance hall. While this night looks like it will turn out like most such nights, namely in heartache, Marty ends up meeting twenty-nine year old schoolteacher, Clara Snyder. A proverbial wallflower, Clara is equally as sad as Marty, she using the excuse of her father in particular needing her as a reason not to strike out on her own, with her and Marty's meeting solely due to her blind date ditching her in being disappointed with the setup due to her looks, she also not model material. In their shared loneliness, Marty and Clara end up connecting emotionally. While there seems to be the possibility that love with each other could end up part of their lives, they not only have to overcome their own insecurities to enter into a relationship, but the open feelings of others, those in Marty's life injecting their own biases in seeing Clara as not the one for him.—Huggo