Tom, an intense young man, goes on a 1-day odyssey in New York City to find out "what it all means." In the process he encounters six women. He has sex with the first under the bed in her apartment and romps in the nude at breakfast. The second woman, whom he brings to his apartment, feels nervous and frustrated and offers Tom no pleasure. The third lies on a table and engages in a spiritualistic ritual. She is interested in the possibility of making love with famous men of the past, notably James Dean, and expresses concern over the firmness of her breasts. The fourth woman is being kept by another man in a "mod" apartment that she detests; though she and Tom make sexual contact, she rejects his offer to move in because she suspects that his taste in furnishings is too close to that of her lover. Tom meets a lesbian on a staircase, and she ridicules him for interpreting a familiar pinch as a sign of sexual encouragement. Finally, Tom ends up at his own apartment again with a married woman who tells him at length of her arguments with her husband over the question of killing the cockroaches in their apartment. His day's experiences at an end, Tom has not discovered "what it all means."