An old Swedish sailor is overjoyed when his daughter Anna visits him after fifteen years of living in St. Paul, but his crony Marthy realizes she is not the sweet innocent her father imagines, but a former streetwalker come back to reassemble the pieces of her shattered life. Anna gradually fits in with her father's friends, even falling in love for the first time - until an envious Marthy spills the truth about Anna's past at a neighborhood ball, nearly destroying her dream of happiness. (Written for the incomporable Gwen Verdon.)