Alex Lovejoy, a freelance film worker in between jobs in Paris, wakes in his hotel to the sound of clucking. Out his window he sees a strange figure in the room below, kneeling over a makeshift nest. Intrigued, he spent several days trying to get a glimpse inside the room, and eventually became acquainted with its inhabitant, one Dr. Asa Nestor. An American professor of poultry psychology, Dr. Nestor had been slated to lecture at a Paris psychology conference but had been cut from the program and was extremely nettled. He had brought along a particularly exciting breeding experiment, hence the hotel chicken nest. Dr. Nestor entreated Alex to help with his strategic hatching plan – smuggling a hen into the hotel.

After many close calls with the chambermaid and the squawking hen, the two devised a routine of bringing the hen to the shower during morning rounds. Pleased with themselves, they went out and spent a whole night drinking, emerging to find the morning had dawned and the hotel owner had discovered their hatched chicks. They arranged to have the chicks boarded at a pet shop while Dr. Nestor engaged in a request for help from a local zoo, where a prize vulture was refusing to mate. While his diagnosis and solution seemed promising, he went overboard with a chemical aphrodisiac and was called back in a frenzy to see that the vulture was attempting to mate with eagles.

Dr. Nestor and Alex left their Parisian trials for England, where the doctor was to lecture at the University of Cambridge and consult on their chicken pecking issues. Taciturn through the welcome dinner, he suddenly sprang up and demanded to be taken to the labs; he’d come up with a solution already (inhibitory spectacles). Alex was left to socialize timidly with the Cambridge dons. Dr. Nestor gave a lengthy and well-received lecture that evening, covered by a journalist and followed by a plethora of excited questions. When the night had concluded, Dr. Nestor pulled Alex aside, told him to get the name of the journalist, and have him send a copy of his article back to the Psychology Conference in Paris.