Seventy-six-year-old widower, Doctor Lyon, has just been deprived of his only social outlet- his position as a professor in the English department. Lonely but refusing to be alone, he places a want ad for a female companion. Wonderfully, he acquires a family in the persons of Nadya, an actress, and her five-year-old daughter, Rosemary. His happiness is almost complete-- Suddenly hatred and violence shatter his new-found peace.