Tevya's second daughter, Hodel, falls in love with the tutor Perchik, who dances with her, defying the prohibition against opposite sexes dancing together.

While returning from town, Tevye's third daughter, the bookish Chava, is taunted by some gentile youths. One of them, Fyedka, intervenes and dismisses the others. He offers to loan Chava a book, and a secret relationship begins.

The celebration ends abruptly when a group of Russians interrupt the wedding and destroy everything in sight. Perchik attempts to fight back, grappling with a Russian, and is struck with a club.

Perchik tells Hodel he must return to Kiev to join the revolution. He proposes marriage, and she accepts ("Now I Have Everything"). They break tradition by telling Tevya they love each other and will be married, asking only for his blessing and not his permission. This causes Tevya and Golde to contemplate their own relationship after twenty-five years of marriage.

News spreads quickly that Perchik has been arrested and exiled to Siberia ("The Rumor/I Just Heard"), and Hodel decides she must go to him. At the railway station, she explains to her father that her home is with her beloved, wherever he may be, although she will always love her family ("Far From the Home I Love").

Chava finally gathers the courage to ask Tevye to allow her marriage to Fyedka, but marrying outside the Jewish faith is unacceptable to him, and he forbids her to see him again. The next day, Chava and Fyedka secretly elope, and Chava is disowned by her family.

The Constable brings the news that everyone in the town has three days to pack up and leave the town. In shock, the villagers sing fondly of the home they are leaving behind ("Anatevka").

"Anatevka, Anatevka.
Underfed, overworked Anatevka.
Where else could Sabbath be so sweet?"

It is based on Tevye and his Daughters (or Tevye the Dairyman), a series of short stories by Sholem Aleichem in which Tevye meets the author by chance and relates the latest tale of his trials and tribulations.

The original Broadway production opened on September 22, 1964, at the Imperial Theatre, transferred in 1967 to the Majestic Theatre and in 1970 to The Broadway Theatre, and ran for a record-setting total of 3,242 performances.