Robert Tucker, a sorrowful, solitary man, given to bouts of weeping, tries to balance his life caring for his aging mother, his Catholicism, his homosexuality, and his dull job. One night, after his mother has gone to bed, he dons leather and heads for a private club. He telephones a tattoo artist with a special request. He goes to confession, accusing himself of despairing. He cries out during a nightmare, waking his mother. You're a good boy, she's told him. He prays the Stations of the Cross, and he lives out his own sorrowful mysteries.