Tillie Schlaine is introduced to Pete Seltzer at a party. Her friends Gertrude and Burt are the hosts and attempting to fix her up. Pete is a confirmed bachelor with eccentric habits. When he is not doing odd motivational research for a San Francisco firm, he plays ragtime piano and makes puns. He periodically pops in and out of Tillie's life, going days without calling, but when he spontaneously shows up at her door, they make love, after which he learns that Tillie was a virgin. It appears that Pete might still be seeing other women, but when he gets a promotion at work, Tillie announces that she is pregnant and that it is time to get married. They wed, buy a house, and Tillie gives birth to a baby boy. Pete's extramarital affairs, however, apparently continue, with Tillie going so far as discouraging one of his young lovers at lunch. Years go by until one day, 9-year-old son Robbie is stricken with a fatal illness. Pete tries to shield the boy by keeping him in what Tillie calls "a world of nonsense", but the inevitable death destroys Tillie's religious faith and ruptures their marriage. Tillie abstains from sex while Pete turns to drink, and he takes an apartment. Tillie's depression is alleviated a bit by a friendship with Jimmy, who is gay but willing to marry her if that would make Tillie happy. When she and Jimmy conspire to make Gertrude reveal her true age at long last, the result is a public brawl between the two women. Tillie ends up in a
sanitarium. Her life comes to a standstill until Pete turns up one day. When she observes how their son's death has affected him after his years of hiding it, Tillie and Pete leave the sanitarium together. == Cast ==