 He finds work there and rents a room in the home of Mr. and Mrs. Kelly, who are having financial difficulties as a result of Mr. Kelly's recent hip injury.Because the Kellys' teenage daughter, Margaret ("Mick"), resents having to give up her room to him, John tries to win her friendship.He also tries to become friends with Jake Blount, a semi-alcoholic drifter, and Dr. Copeland, an embittered segregationist African American physician who is secretly dying of lung cancer.