Brighton Beach Memoirs is about Eugene Morris Jerome, a teenage Jewish boy growing up in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, during the Great Depression. He lives in a crowded house with his parents, brother, aunt, and cousins. Eugene wants to become a baseball player or writer, and he narrates the play with humor as he observes the problems around him.

The family struggles with money, responsibility, and tension between relatives, while also worrying about what is happening to Jews in Europe. The play is funny and warm, but it also shows the pressure of growing up and the sacrifices families make for each other.