A Harlem pawnbroker tries to cope with his changing neighborhood while haunted by memories of the concentration camps.

With the rise of Hitler, Prof. Sol Nazerman, a Jew, and his family were dragged to a concentration camp, where he saw his two children die and his wife raped by Nazi officers. Now he operates a pawnshop in Spanish Harlem. Numbed by the horrors of his past, he considers himself conditioned against any emotion. His assistant at the shop is a brash but sensitive young Puerto Rican, Jesus Ortiz, who senses that there is another being under the cold exterior Nazerman presents. But the boy's attempts to break through this exterior are rebuffed, as are those of Marilyn Birchfield, a neighborhood social worker. When Nazerman learns that Rodriguez, the pawnshop's flamboyant black backer, makes his money through prostitution, the old man recalls his wife's death and swears that he wants no part of the business; but Rodriguez forces him to admit that he knew all along where the money came from. One day Ortiz tries to get assurance from Nazerman that there is more to life than the ugliness he sees around him. When Nazerman responds by being thoughtlessly cruel, the boy spitefully arranges for the pawnshop to be robbed. Facing armed thugs, Nazerman refuses to hand over his money and readily--almost eagerly--awaits death. But Ortiz takes the bullet intended for Nazerman and dies in the old man's arms. In frustration, Nazerman impales his hand on the receipt spindle and wanders into the street.