Rabbi Avraham and his wife Esther have one son, Menachem, whose birth they regard as miraculous. Menachem's curiosity about the world is repeatedly stymied by his father, who in one instance forces him to rip up an "idolatrous" picture. Foreshadowed by an instance of ''Shiluach haken,'' a trip to the Dead Sea — the eponymous "summer vacation" — ends with Menachem drowning and his parents mourning.