Synopsis

The story concerns a young hemophiliac youth named Chandler who has been kept, of necessity, by his mother in a very sheltered sort of existence. Chandler is desperate for contact with the world. He is also highly intelligent; but is supremely naive about the ways of the world. He just doesn't know what to do about his craving for love-until he meets Shivaree. She is another neighbor who supports herself by being an itinerant belly-dancer. She is a true original, and before too long the delightful Shivaree and the innocent Chandler are in love, much to the consternation of Chandler's mother, who forbids him to ever see Shivaree again. Chandler, undaunted, climbs out the fire escape-his first venture outside his hermetic world.