Van, a boat dweller, runs a bookstore. He has lots of time to daydream and write out his stream of consciousness in never-to-be-published tomes. After seeing a particularly fetching girl walk by the store, he chases after her, but to no avail. She becomes the object of his fantasies, seeing her with a customer in the store, on the street, even on the TV in his houseboat den. Days pass and he finds her being harassed by a cop on his street corner. He comes to her aid, she confides her troubles and he takes her in... to his bed. And the rest is history.
