Phobic Beau is approaching fifty and lives as a lonely welfare case in a slum neighborhood full of weirdos. When his mother is killed by a chandelier, he is supposed to travel to her funeral. Instead, he ends up first with stolid do-gooders in an oppressive suburban idyll, then with art-loving bohemians in their open-air metaphorical play. When he finally arrives at his mother's villa, more surprises and dark secrets about his Kafkaesque life await him there.