Fruma Sarah is the long dead first wife of Lazar Wolf, Anatevka's relatively prosperous butcher. After arranging for his daughter Tzeitel to marry Lazar Wolf, Tevye learns of her love for the town's impoverished Tailor Mottle. Unable to himself rescind the marriage arrangement, Tevye tricks his superstitious wife Golde into doing it for him. He pretends to have had a horrific nightmare in which he was visited by Fruma Sarah's vindictive ghost. As imagined by Tevye, Fruma Sarah threatens spectral vengeance should Tzeitel take her place, her home and especially her pearls.