Synopsis

Act I. Borekh’s three daughters, Dina, Mina, and Tsina, complain that they have to stay home with their father rather than go out and find husbands, and Borekh laments about having to care for three daughters. His one son is so much easier to deal with, but where can one find husbands for three daughters? When the matchmaker, Reb Shimen, arrives, Borekh berates him for not having found matches for his daughters. But Shimen complains that it’s almost impossible to find three candidates at once. He has found a nice, wealthy young man passing through town, and he can go bring him to be checked out; let him marry one of the daughters while the others are still hunting. But after Reb Shimen goes, Borekh’s daughters insist that they must all get married at the same time. They are getting on in years, and no one wants to have to go second. Shimen returns with Yozef, the young traveler. When Borekh asks whether he has two eligible friends like him who can marry the other two daughters so there won’t be a fight, Yozef tells his story. His mother died young, and he decided to go off and make his fortune. He has done so over the past decade, but is now returning to Lublin to see whether his father is alive, and to help his sisters. It turns out that he is Borekh’s long-lost son, and the family happily reunites. The daughters decide that they will go to the masked ball and see if they can arrange matches with Herren Iks, Miks, and Driks.

Act II. A masked ball. Iks, Miks, and Driks sing about the importance of noses. Iks and Dina meet, and he correctly guesses her identity. He says that he and his friends want just what she and her sisters want: to marry. She goes to discuss it with them and their father and brother, and the girls dance off. Scene change to Borekh’s house. Yozef has received a letter offering him his old job in America, and he’d like to go, but not before taking care of his sisters. The girls bring in Iks, Miks, and Driks, who take off their noses and say that now that the daughters have nice dowries, they’re willing to marry them. Yozef sings that his arrival seems to have brought the family good luck.