: A poor Jew from a small town ends up in a big city. Trying to make money, he suffers one failure after another.

The collection is based on the correspondence of the protagonist with his wife.

London (Odessa Exchange)

Menachem Mendl arrives in Chisinau to his uncle for a dowry. He gives him a bill, a little cash and sends it to Odessa to his companion. From Odessa, Menachem-Mendl writes a letter to his wife, Sheine-Shendl. He is delighted with the city: here you can make money from the air. He is investing in London fabric.

A wife who does not understand anything in trading operations is interested in one thing: when her husband returns home.

Menachem Mendl loses money on the exchange. He goes to expensive cafes to make the necessary acquaintances. He dreams that he and his wife will move to Odessa. Sheine-Shandl does not want to hear about Odessa, which she hates, without knowing why.

Due to the international situation on the exchange, a collapse occurs, and Menachem Mendl loses everything. His wife, cursing everything in the world, asks him to return.

Papers (Egupetsk Stock Exchange)

On the way home, Menachem Mendl meets an Odessa speculator who offers him to go with him to Yegupets and play the stock exchange there. On the Egyptian stock exchange Menachem Mendl decides to buy up shares - “pieces of paper”, as they are called. At first, he is lucky, and he earns a little.

Shane-Shandl is ill, she needs an operation for which she has no money.Let her husband either return home or divorce her. But Menachem Mendl can’t return now, the opportunity to make money on stocks is too great. He is buying up new shares of enterprises. Odessa brokers are trying to buy shares from him, but he refuses them.

Shane-Shendl considers her husband crazy. She also reports the death of his brother’s wife, now seven children are left orphans. But Menachem-Mendl believes that there is no need to worry, everything will work out. Shane-Shendl herself threatens to come for her husband. Soon, his wife reports that his brother married a nineteen-year-old girl.

The stock market crashes and Menachem Mendl loses everything again. He tears his hair: why didn’t he sell the shares before when they offered him? Now Shane-Shandl hopes that he will return home.

Millions (merchants, brokers, and “speculators”)

After failures Menachem Mendl decides to become a broker. True, he has not earned anything yet, he even had to borrow money. First, he wants to earn on sugar, then on the sale of houses, then forests, factories and factories.

A crisis comes and the broker is left without work. But people like Menachem Mendl do not disappear, he takes up a million-dollar business, but for this he needs to go to Siberia and he wants to attract the very rich Brodsky. Menachem Mendl tries to meet with him, but so far they haven’t let him go further than the doorman. Upon learning that he was "close to Brodsky," Menachem Mendl began to enjoy great respect among brokers. They offer him a deal, but the next millionth Menachem-Mendl deal breaks down. Shane-Shandl all this time conjures him to return: she believes that her husband will be brought home either in shackles or in a straitjacket.

Venerable Profession (Menachem-Mendl writer)

Menachem Mendl decides to become a writer. He sets out his story.She liked the editors, and now the Jew receives an order for a new story. He describes the hostess of the hotel where he lives. However, while he does not receive money for stories.

Sheine-Shendl's father is seriously ill, but Menachem-Mendel cannot come, he has nothing to do. He owed the landlady and it took him a lot of money for paper and ink.

Unlucky (Menachem Mendl - matchmaker)

With the money sent by his wife, Menachem Mendl goes home. The hostess asks him to hand over the knot forgotten by her former guest, a matchmaker. Having learned from a passenger sitting next to him on the train that he is also a matchmaker, also with a worldwide reputation, Menachem Mendl decides to take up another profitable business. A matchmaker with a worldwide reputation does not have money for a ticket, and an unlucky businessman gives him money.

Menachem Mendl, as a matchmaker, finds a wonderful bride and reports this to a matchmaker with a worldwide reputation. They make an appointment at a hotel where Menachem Mendl orders a good dinner for eight. On the day they meet potential spouses, it turns out that the fellow traveler from the train is also a damsel, not a groom. Both matchmakers flee even before the meeting of the families with their daughters to marry, and Menachem Mendl has to pay for the hotel and lunch.

Woe-affliction (Menachem Mendl - agent)

Menachem Mendl decides to become an agent that insures people against death. In Bessarabia, in the synagogue, he is invited to insure him the rich gentleman of the Moldavian. Two bring Menachem-Mendl to a small sooty hut, where the "rich master" gives a deposit and signs the necessary papers.

Satisfied Menachem-Mendl talks about the matter to the owner of the hotel, but he laughs: these are crooks and bandits, and the one he insured will most likely give his soul away or have already died. Realizing that he could be arrested, Menachem Mendl decides to escape. He goes to Hamburg to get to America from there, where they say he lives well. There he will work and take away his wife and children over time.