Eliezer Shkolnik (Shlomo Bar Aba) is a philologist who researches the different versions and phrasings of the Jerusalem Talmud. He and his son Uriel (Lior Ashkenazi) are both professors at the Talmudic Research department of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Uriel, a young charismatic academic, is extremely popular with the department's students and the general public, and is also recognized by the establishment when he is elected member of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities. The father, on the other hand, is a stubborn old-school purist in his research methods. He is unpopular, unrecognized, and frustrated by his would-be lifetime research achievement having gone unfulfilled, as a rival scholar, Prof. Yehuda Grossman (Micah Lewensohn), published similar results one month ahead of Eliezer. Eliezer is also highly critical of the new methods of research used by his son and other modern researchers, as he considers them superficial. His ambition is to be recognized by being awarded the Israel Prize, but he is disappointed every year when he does not win it. His nature and the lack of recognition have made him bitter, anti-social, and envious of his son's popularity.
Eliezer receives a phone call from the Minister of Education. She tells Eliezer that he was elected this year's laureate of the Israel Prize and congratulates him.
The following day Uriel is summoned to an urgent meeting with the Israel Prize committee. Uriel is told that an error had occurred and that in fact it was he, not his father, who was awarded the Israel Prize. The committee wishes to discuss ways to correct the error, but Uriel objects, saying the revelation would devastate his father. Uriel and the head of the committee, Grossman, argue over the issue until Uriel loses his temper and shoves Grossman. Regretting his outburst, Uriel relents, and asks that the committee permit him to break the news to his father personally. During the meeting Uriel says he has been submitting his father's name for the Israel Prize every year, and accuses Grossman of blocking that and other ways of recognizing Eliezer. According to Grossman, Eliezer never published anything significant in his career, and his only claim to fame is being mentioned as a footnote in the work of a more famous scholar.
Uriel goes to the National Library to break the news to his father but finds him raising a toast to winning the prize with colleagues. Unable to break the news, he once again meets with Grossman, asking that the prize be given to Eliezer. Grossman relents but with two conditions: Uriel must write the committee's recommendation and Uriel can never be a candidate for the prize. Uriel agrees.
Uriel writes the recommendation text, picking and choosing every word carefully; at the same time Eliezer, finally recognized, is interviewed by the newspaper Haaretz, during which he denounces the scientific and academic validity of Uriel's research.
When the interview is published, Uriel is angry but keeps his secret. Later, though, he whispers the secret to his mother. She does not disclose the truth to anyone else.
During preparations for a television interview, Eliezer is struck by a word in the Israel Prize committee's recommendation. He flees the television studio and returns to his study. He examines the word, cross-checking its published uses, and realizes that the text must have actually been written by Uriel. Eliezer also reconstructs his phone conversation with the Minister of Education, realizing she had addressed him by his last name only. He concludes that the minister thought she was talking to his son when she broke the news about the Israel Prize.
On the day of the prize ceremony, Eliezer and his wife arrive at the Jerusalem International Convention Center to prepare for the ceremony; Eliezer is stressed and distracted. The movie ends a moment before the laureates are called to the stage.
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