Summary
A rust-flecked hen, clucking like an oracle inside a sagging Virginia barn, lays the first golden syllable of what will become a city symphony: Phoebe Lester, barefoot and moon-eyed, believes the egg is meant for Philip—pale, consumptive, ink-stained boarder who has drifted south to die and instead finds himself resurrected by buttermilk and wonder. The egg finances a one-way pilgrimage to Manhattan, but Gotham greets the yoke-fed country girl with a wolf-whistle of neon and shark-skin suits. Laura, a sequined siren smelling of gin and gardenias, lures Phoebe into a velvet trap where champagne fizzes like insults and Owen—Philip’s erstwhile patron—covets innocence as though it were loose change. The hen escapes, triggering a Keystone chase across Third Avenue trolleys; a corpulent cop scoops up both bird and belle, becoming reluctant cupid. A dumb-waiter cradle disgorges Johnny—foundling of indeterminate provenance—whose gummy smile magnetizes fortune: Philip’s verses suddenly sell, the tenement blossoms into lace curtains, and the trio floats on an updraft of hope. Yet Owen, jaded Midas, needs fresh meat for his roulette altar; loaded dice and forged love notes shred the marriage. Phoebe, clutching a broken heart and a one-way ticket back to hay-scented nowhere, confronts Owen in a cavernous café where mirrors reflect only men without shadows. Remorse, rare as white blackbirds, overtakes him; he gambles his last chip—his own salvation—and restores the lovers to a refurbished Eden, this time with Johnny between them like an exclamation point.
Synopsis
Phoebe Lester, a little country girl, whispers to her pet hen, "You've laid an egg for a man from New York. Ain't you proud?" and while taking breakfast to Philip, the new boarder, who came from that distant place, she gazes at him as if he has come from an unknown land. Returning to the city with a newfound love and regained health, Philip struggles to sell his poems to bring his "egg" girl to her New York. In the meantime, Phoebe's brown hen proves to be a golden one, and her egg money buys a ticket to Philip and her Wonderland. On the train, Laura, a flashily-dressed woman, meets Phoebe and, tempting her with a nice new dress, takes her to her house. There, Owen, a former employer of Philip, is fascinated by her simplicity. Such grandeur and strange "fizzy" drinks overwhelm her, but Providence intervenes, when the little brown hen hops into the street with Phoebe scrambling after. A big-hearted policeman finds her and takes her to Philip, and acts as "bridesmaid" at their wedding. Their little home, built on much love and little food, is brightened by the adoption of Johnny, an abandoned baby, that Philip finds on the dumbwaiter. Johnny brings good luck and Philip secures a good job through Owen and in nicer quarters their cup of happiness seems to be full, when Owen, to further his ends, contrives to get Philip to gamble with borrowed money. Phoebe, convinced by trickery, that Philip is unfaithful, is heart-broken and believes that love and her New York are unreal after all. But, the yielding, grief-stricken country girl awakens Owen's better self, and with his help the unhappy household is reunited.
