A middle-aged tax consultant, Herbert Whipple, is a timid everyman. On his way home from work, he searches for the home of one of his clients and, after a moment of indecision, chooses the wrong residence. Instead of the wealthy client he expects, he opens the door to find an impoverished portraitist with a thick beard and a completely nude woman sitting for a painting. Before Herbert can fully explain himself, the man guffaws and throws the change from his pockets at him, calling that his income tax. He eventually extricates himself from the room, but not before the painter has a good laugh, which leaves Herbert thoroughly embarrassed. Despite his dread about having to face his wife, Herbert is hungry enough that he starts for home. On the way down the stairs from the painter's apartment, he is pushed and shoved into an odd, chaotic party. Smoke, caricatured progressive debates, and scantily-clad revelers surround him. After a man fetches Herbert a drink and makes unrequited advances on him, everyone sits down on the floor as Claudel, a spoken-word poet, gives an extemporaneous recitation. The drunken Herbert then speaks a poem of his own and wows the crowd. As Gretel, a woman impressed by his performance, draws him into a bedroom, a partygoer exposes Claudel's cardinal sin: he has published a written poem. Herbert, however, is too distracted by Gretel to care.