Asher Lev is a boy with a prodigious artistic ability born into a Hasidic Jewish family. During his childhood in the 1950s, in the time of Joseph Stalin and the persecution of Jews and religious people in the Soviet Union, Asher's artistic inclination brings him into conflict with the members of his Jewish community, which values things primarily as they relate to faith and considers art unrelated to religious expression to be at best a waste of time and possibly a sacrilege. It brings him into particularly strong conflict with his father, Aryeh, a man who has devoted his life to serving their leader, the Rebbe, by traveling around the world bringing the teachings and practice of their sect to other Jews. Aryeh is by nature incapable of understanding or appreciating art and considers Asher's early drawings to be "foolishness."
In the middle is Asher's mother, Rivkeh, who in Asher's early childhood was severely traumatized by the death of her brother, who was killed while traveling for the Rebbe. Rivkeh is only able to emerge from her depression when she decides to continue her brother's work and obtains the Rebbe's permission to return to college to study Russian affairs. Throughout the novel she suffers anxiety for her husband's safety during his almost constant traveling, and is frequently seen waiting at the large window of their apartment for her husband or son to return home.
The Rebbe asks Asher's father to relocate to Vienna, which would make it easier to perform his work establishing yeshivas throughout Europe. Asher becomes very upset about this and refuses to move to Vienna, in spite of requests from his parents and teachers alike. Rivkeh ultimately decides to stay in Brooklyn with Asher while Aryeh moves to Vienna alone.
While Asher's father is away, Asher explores his artistic nature and neglects his Jewish studies. Asher begins to go to art museums where he studies paintings, but is not sure what to make of paintings of nudes, nor paintings of crucifixions. Aryeh, returning home after a long trip to Russia for the Rebbe, discovers some drawings Asher has made of crucifixions as a way of studying them, and is furious. Asher's father thinks that his gift is foolish and from the sitra achra ("Other Side"), and wants Rivkeh to prevent him from going to museums; however, Rivkeh, torn between the wishes of her husband and the needs of her son, knows it is pointless to forbid Asher from going.
Eventually, the Rebbe intercedes and allows Asher to study under a great living artist, Jacob Kahn, a non-observant Jew who is an admirer of the Rebbe. Jacob Kahn teaches Asher artistic techniques and art history, and encourages Asher to paint the truth, so as not to become a "whore." Meanwhile, since Asher continues to refuse to relocate to Europe, Rivkeh moves there to support Asher's father, leaving Asher to live with his uncle and apprentice with Jacob Kahn. After several years, Asher has his first art show in New York, launching his career.
Their work in Europe completed, Asher's parents move back to Brooklyn, at which point Asher decides to travel to Europe to view and study great art. He visits Florence in particular and spends many hours studying The Deposition as well as Michelangelo's David. Later, after relocating to Paris, Asher paints his masterpiece: two works that use the symbolism of the crucifixion to express his mother's anguish and torment, since there is no artistic form in the Jewish tradition to fully express these feelings. When these works are displayed at a New York art show (the first of his that Asher's parents have ever attended), the imagery so offends his parents and community that the Rebbe asks him to move away. Asher, sensing that he is destined to journey the world, to express its anguish through his art, but to cause pain by doing so, decides to return to Europe.
