A recent graduate of a Tennessee lw school in the late 1700s is the prize jewel of his mother’s collection. She dotes on him and he on her in a borderline unnatural relationship. When he marries and is offered a plum job in San Francisco his mother is extremely upset, and he himself had to be talked into the separation by his fiancé. His mother tells him that if he leaves he will meet his death by strangulation and asks to be taken with them so she may look after him. He refuses and leaves for his now position but has a hard time separating the identity of his wife and his mother.