Vacationing at Long Beach Island, four cousins engage in a variety of activities, including pretending to be orphans, raising money for a trip to Atlantic City, and avoiding a whiny cousin named Miranda.
Thirteen-year-old Vic hates Hebrew school and is indifferent to his upcoming bar mitzvah, until he is suddenly disallowed from participating in either.
To prolong starting college, Metz goes to New York for "the experience," where he finds both loneliness and a sense of responsibility, and renews a relationship with a girl named Maddy.
Told to make a doll like a pilgrim for the Thanksgiving display at school, Molly's Jewish mother dresses the doll as herself dressed before leaving Russia to seak religious freedom, much to Molly's embarrassment.
Fourth-grader Emily is forced to think about her Jewish heritage when the new boy, an Orthodox Jew, refuses to participate in the school Christmas celebrations.
