Loser Ben Harris (Eli Wallach), an alienated Greenwich Village mailman, decides to get a girl the only way he can—by kidnapping her. Putting his plan into operation one rainy night, he spots an attractive young woman. He races ahead of her and prepares an ambush. However, his would-be target finds shelter from the downpour and he ends up pulling a bag down over Gloria Fiske (Anne Jackson) instead. When he carries her back to his basement apartment and removes the bag, he is dumbfounded to find he has captured a middle-aged housewife. With no alternative, he makes do with the person he has caught, but she proves to be not quite what he envisaged.