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. 伯纳德·钱德克利尔是一个受到父母过分的保护的年轻人，他二十岁的时候才懂得什么是对一个女孩子动心的感觉。伯纳德在他父亲工作的图书馆里遇到了一个敏感而又漂亮的年轻女孩，她叫艾米，她也注意到了伯纳德。但很快伯纳德就把目光转到一个迷人的、表演戈戈舞的芭芭拉身上，她一个被男人所憎恨，并以玩弄男人为乐的女人。伯纳德看过她的表演之后，就深深地被她所吸引，并给她寄去了一封情书。而芭芭拉用诱人的回答欺骗他。伯纳德完全陷入了芭芭拉的陷阱，屡次被她玩弄。最终伯纳德挑衅地当着父母的面把父亲最钟爱的古登堡圣经偷走。
