Threadbare recounts the story of Tillie, an innocent but tenacious young girl who chooses to marry Abe, a lonely widower, rather than follow her farming community north as urban development transforms rural Harlem. Convinced Abe will help her attend high school on the Lower East Side, Tillie faces a rude awakening amidst the filth and disease of the tenements. Through the following decades, she turns her energy and intelligence to partnering with Abe as he builds a thriving button business while she and her neighbor Sadie launch a unique garment company. Pushing back against anti-Semitic Victorian values dominating the time, Tillie acquires wealth only to have her life upended by a devastating, unforeseen challenge.