A Brief Telling of the Story of Doggy in the Window

 

In a typical American suburb, a French sex addict named Mel struggles to stave off his addiction by doing penance as a manic do-gooder - volunteering to help the elderly. He becomes entangled in the life of Miss Odessa, an eccentric senior citizen who lives with her little doggy, Formaggio, isolated, lonely and paranoid.

 

Odessa’s paranoia escalates after Earlene, a young woman with a severe case of Tourette's Syndrome, moves into the apartment just on the other side of a thin wall. She is terrified by Earlene’s strange phonic tics heard through the wall. When Formaggio dies, Miss Odessa insists that her beloved doggy was scared to death by the fearsome noises from next door. She urgently dispatches Mel to deal with Formaggio’s imagined killers.

 

Seeking justice for Odessa’s dead doggy, Mel encounters Earlene and experiences immediate attraction. Earlene, long isolated by Tourette’s, finds her intimacy with Mel thrilling. Mel’s genuine feelings for Earlene panic and throw him off the abstinence wagon. He finds himself lost in comically sensuous sexual situations, even transgressing with Miss Odessa.

 

Mel decides to flee in shame, leaving a note for Earlene confessing his sex addiction. Before Mel can make his escape, Odessa’s new doggy dies horribly. It seems a doggy killer is on the prowl and the next intended victim might be Mel.

 

The dead doggy mystery brings together quirky neighbors, a skeptic veterinarian and a jilted, vengeful painter. In spite of the judgmental perception of themselves, Mel and Earlene are drawn back together in the midst of chaos and discover what they truly mean to each other.

 

Doggy in the Window plays with the clichés of sex addiction, Tourette’s and aging, injecting absurdist humor to turn them toward a revelation of human struggle, inspiring compassion for the character’s conditions and for their humanity.