A starry-eyed young beauty, Marjorie Morningstar is nineteen years old when she leaves New York to accept the job of her dreams - working in a summer-stock company for Noel Airman, a talented and intensely charismatic director. Released from the social constraints of her traditional Jewish family, and thrown into the glorious, colorful world of theater, Marjorie finds herself entangled in a powerful affair with the man destined to become the greatest -and the most destructive - love of her life.