Sonny Phillips has just been discharged from the Army. He returns home to run-down, gothic New Orleans before heading off to make a life for himself. The only life he's known is as a gigolo, working for his mother, but he wants to leave that behind and escape his past. The job his Army buddy promised doesn't materialise, and he then falls in love with one of his mother's prostitutes and is forced to make a choice - will he stay or go?