 Twelve-year-old Nick (played by Barry Gordon) lives with his Uncle Murray (Jason Robards), a Mr.Micawber-like Dickensian character who keeps hoping something won t turn up. What turns up is a social worker (Barbara Harris), who falls in love with Murray and a bit in love with Nick. As the child welfare people try to force Murray to become a conventional man (as the price they demand for allowing him to keep Nick), the nephew, who until now has gloried in his Uncle s iconoclastic approach to life, tries to play mediator. But when he succeeds, he is alarmed by the uncle s willingness to cave in to society in order to save the relationship.