As the economic reforms of the mid-1980s begin to take their toll on New Zealand's most vulnerable, Gina Tully, manager of Happy World hotel--a down-and-out residential hotel filled with rascals and eccentrics--must reconcile her social conscience with her need to keep her job. Emerging from this story about the downtrodden and disadvantaged is a celebration of human resilience that reminds us of the importance of intimacy and compassion.