The story opens in a small Jewish village in Poland in the early twentieth century. Yentl, the daughter of a rabbi, enjoys studying the Torah and other holy texts. She has no desire to get married and become a housewife. After her father dies, Yentl cuts her hair short, dresses in her father's clothes, adopts the male name Anshel and leaves to study in the yeshiva in Bechev. The story ends abruptly with many issues seemingly unresolved. The only person to learn that Anshel is really a woman named Yentl is Avgidor, although Yentl does not declare her love for him.