Father Hardstep Rivers attempst to save Jennie, a young prostitute from a fate worse than death. Jennie doesn’t know that her pimp Ric (George Chakiris) is really her father, or that her mother Sara (Bibi Besch) is doing time in the pen. Hardstep tries to affect a miracle by having the former lovers meet at the church altar. He gets Sara out of the pen on a pass, then watches as the woman implores Ric to free their daughter from sexual bondage. Even the resident wino could have seen what was coming. Not Hardstep. Eric refuses the mother’s request, and she murders him in cold blood with a knife.