Nervous spinster Charlotte Vale is stunted from growing up under the heel of her puritanical Boston Brahmin mother and remains convinced of her own unworthiness until a kindly psychiatrist gives her the confidence to venture out into the world on a South American cruise. Onboard, she finds her footing with the help of an unhappily married man. Their thwarted love affair may help Charlotte break free of her mother's grip, but will she find fulfillment...

A wire for Live, the Web, thirst, recklessness, warnings, fog, bread and butter, Bound East for Cardiff, aAbortion, the movie man, servitude, the sniper, the personal eqauation, before breakfast, now I ask you, in the zone, ile, the long voyage home, the moon of the caribbees, the robe, beyond the horizon, shell shock, the dreamy kid, where the cross is made, the straw, Chris Christophersen, gold, anna Christie, and the Emperor Jones.