In Anatevka everyone, like the fiddler on the roof, is trying to scratch out an existence, and this includes Tevye, the milkman, his wife Golde and their five daughters. In the midst of their troubles, Yente, the matchmaker, tells Golde that Lazar Wolf, the wealthy but middle-aged and fat butcher, hopes to marry Tzeitel, the eldest daughter. But she is already in love with the tailor, Motel, and Tevye may not approve the match anyway. Tevye is a practical philosopher and when he meets Perchik, a student, he allows him to teach his daughters in return for his keep, and then reluctantly agrees to the marriage with Lazar Wolf. Tzeitel and Motel own up to their secret betrothal. Traditionally, the father chooses the daughter’s husband, but Tevye appreciates the depths of Tzeitel’s feelings and consents. But how to tell Golde? He decides to tell her in the middle of the night. Pretending to wake from a nightmare, he tells how Fruma-Sarah, Lazar’s first wife, and her own grandmother, long since dead, have appeared to him in a dream and Golde is frightened into agreeing. They are married in the traditional style but the wedding is broken up by the Russians making “a little unofficial demonstration” by destroying Jewish property, ruining the wedding feast and leaving Tevye asking God for an explanation. By the opening of Act II, Motel and Tzeitel have been married for two months. The Russian revolution is under way and Perchik goes to join the revolutionaries, but not before he asks Hodel to marry him. She accepts, and once again Tevye appreciates the depth of feeling, and gives them his blessing. In breaking the news to Golde he wonders if love is not the basis of their relationship too. Hearing that Perchik has been arrested, Hodel decides to join him and marry there. Then the trouble comes to Anatevka. An edict expels the Jewish families within three days, even Tevye, whose third daughter, Chava, has married a Russian. Gathering their humble belongings about them, they once again are on the move to make new homes and new lives in Poland, the Holy Land and America.