One evening unravels a house full of secrets. Mrs. Candy is a kind-hearted widow who rents rooms to a house of interesting boarders on New Orleans' Cairo Street in the 1940s. When she falls for one of them, she accepts dating advice from her dearly departed Mr. Candy and throws a party. Amidst visits from the police and trips to the bar, much is revealed about the drunken politician, the quarrelling lovers, the upper-class social worker, and the polite Cajun. Some will get arrested, others will get married, and one will shock them all when a carefully kept secret stumbles out.