At the Applegate Arms, a boarding house outside the French Quarter in New Orleans, Melodie Callahan, a young woman from New Jersey has just arrived and meets the other boarders. Frederick Charleston, a poet with a love for good bourbon and women, takes her under his wing and begins to instruct her on the way of life in the Big Easy. Also helping are Gretchen "Doc" Turner, Splendid Farrington, and Lonnie DeBuffon.