Marty Piletti (Ernest Borgnine)’s Timeline and Summary
- Marty is a humble, 34-year-old butcher in the Bronx, NYC, who still lives at home.
- Everyone—from his customers to his friends to his mother—wants to know when he's going to get married. After all, the weekend before, his last kid-bachelor brother tied the knot.
- His boss, who's retiring to California, has just asked him if he wants to buy the shop.
- When he comes home from work Saturday, his mother lets him know that his aunt is going to move in with them, and also that his cousin told her to tell him that the Stardust Ballroom is full of tomatoes.
- After a little bit of a spat, he agrees to go to the dance hall that night.
- At the Stardust, his friend Angie finds a dance partner lickety-split, but Marty gets rejected as usual.
- A guy comes up and asks if he'll escort his bum date in exchange for five dollars. Marty is disgusted and refuses, then asks the bum date in question if she wants to dance.
- The woman's name is Clara and she's a 30-ish teacher who lives with her parents too. She might be plain, but Marty feels kinship with her, and they head to a coffee shop, and then later to his house, to get to know each other, talking about their joys and pains and futures.
- At Marty's house, Marty tries to kiss Clara, but she withdraws. He feels rejected all over until she explains that she was simply taken off-guard. They do kiss then, and make plans to hang out the next day, after church.
- Marty's mother arrives home and Marty watches her and Clara get into it a bit over the place of a woman and whether or not mothers should derive their joy exclusively from their brood.
- Mercifully, it's getting late, and so he takes Clara home.
- Feeling hopeful and happy for the first time in a long while, Marty dances his way through the rest of the evening and into that morning, getting ready for church.
- His aunt, characteristically grumpy, moves in, and Marty takes the opportunity to ask her son, Tommy, an accountant, whether or not he should buy the butcher shop.
- His cousin, upset at his family's in-fighting, tells Marty to stay away from debt and obligation.
- Later, before church, Marty's mom asks if Clara is Italian and what her deal is. She tells him that Clara isn't right for him and asks him not to see her again. He obeys, like a good son, but is visibly upset.
- After church, Marty hangs out with the boys. Angie makes it known that he thinks Clara is an old-looking dud.
- The boys try to figure out what they'll do that night, and then reconvene at the bar later, and resume that same conversation.
- Marty, understanding that life will always be the same ol', same ol' until he makes an action to change it, rushes from his buddies to the phone booth to call Clara. He doesn't care what anyone else thinks: He's going to bet on love.