Paulie, an intelligent parrot who actually talks, relates the story of his struggle to a Russian immigrant who works as a janitor at the research institute where he is housed and neglected. His story begins many years earlier when he is given as a gift to a little girl named Marie who stutters. Eventually, he teaches her to speak correctly but is taken away by her father because he believes she can't distinguish fantasy from reality because she believes he can talk. He goes through a series of adventures with a pawn shop owner, an aging widow, a Mexican American troubadour, and a would-be thief before being taken to the institute where he now lives.—