Plot

Confused post-teenage virgin Bernard Chanticleer moves to New York City, falls for cold-hearted inscrutable go-go dancer Barbara Darling, then finds true love with a loyal lass.

Bernard Chanticleer's father gives him two simple words of advice: "Grow up." Bernard knows that his first step is to find a girl who's "willing," but he passes up a sure thing, Amy Partlett, for a more elusive goal. Her name is Barbara Darling, an inscrutable go-go dancer. More than a few obstacles keep Bernard from his dream world. There's his doting mother, who mails him locks of her hair and weeps at the thought of her baby as a man; there's a malicious rooster, trained to attack pretty girls, patrolling the halls of his New York City rooming house; and most of all, there's Barbara herself. She turns out to be a man hater, emotionally scarred by the lecherous wooden-legged hypnotherapist who "counseled" her in high school. All in all, Bernard finds himself in an improbable universe with a calculated clumsiness designed to evoke his confusing coming-of-age.—alfiehitchie

Nineteen year old Bernard Chanticleer has led an extremely sheltered life under his wealthy parents' wings. His overbearing mother, Margery Chanticleer, coddles him like a little boy, not letting him do anything out of her sight. His domineering librarian father, I.H. Chanticleer, has provided him with a job as an assistant at the library, a job which he does not do well. Bernard is nonetheless kept on solely because he is the boss' son. Despite I.H. and Margery exerting their power over him, they have different views on what to do with their son. I.H. makes the unilateral decision that since Bernard is a big boy now - I.H. always calling him Big Boy - he is being kicked out of the house to live on his own. Not letting him go, Margery sets him up in an apartment run by acquaintance Miss Nora Thing, who will report to Margery any wrongdoing by Bernard, most specifically when he has inappropriate guests, namely persons of the opposite sex. Bernard's more worldly work colleague, Raef del Grado, who knows that Bernard's problem is that he is preoccupied by the female gender but doesn't know what to do about them, helps Bernard navigate through this new "freedom". Bernard loses all focus when he sees actress Barbara Darling, with who he is totally infatuated. He is so much so that he doesn't even really notice that Amy Partlett, who also works for I.H. and who I.H. likes to have around just to look at her, is totally devoted to him.—Huggo