 A group of friends, mostly artists, rents a house, and they live as a sort of impromptu commune. The group includes the motherly poet, Ida, the painter, Mitra, the  herbalist , Wiley, the communist lesbian, Glinda, and the kindly and generous Ali. Rounding out the group is Oskar, a local, who is tired of bar fights and has decided to join the group as a pacifist. Oskar s old friends chide him for hanging out with the  freak show  but he dismisses them. The commune has fallen upon hard times and they are two months behind in the rent, with no relief in sight. Ali, who often takes it upon himself to pay the landlord, has impulsively given most of his savings to a local girl, whom he barely knows, so that she can go home to India to be married. The landlord, Mr. Ross, shows up with his henchman and berates poor Mitra and Oskar, threatening them with eviction. At an emergency meeting, the members of the commune argue about going to work. Mitra, who doesn t want to be in charge, suggests that they all work for a short time. Glinda, who is madly in love with some girl she had followed a few days before, flat out refuses to get a job. "I refuse to be the hamster on the wheel like everyone else," she says. The tenants try to get jobs, drink wine, and party until one of them comes up with a novel solution.