The weekend is winding down and high school sophomore Sidney Reissman is running out of time to complete an English assignment due first thing Monday morning. In fact, he’s still stuck on the first paragraph. For most students, failing one assignment is no big deal. Sidney, however, is the teacher’s star pupil and held to a higher degree of excellence. Sitting at the computer in the family den, he’s forced to deal with a never-ending parade of distractions, such as his stepfather, Derrick, a beer-chugging Navy man looking for an extra set of hands to help fix the car; his doting mother, Barbara, wiser than King Solomon and ten times the cook; and the gnawing memories of growing up different than all his friends. With the clock ticking, Sidney must dig deep, block out the world, and answer the question at hand: what does it mean to be Jewish?