On his first night in a bar, he is racing the clock to find a woman before midnight, and is attracted to Maggie (Marsha Mason), a prostitute hustling sailors at a pool table. He challenges her at pool, and later goes to her tenement apartment for a sexual encounter, discovering that she lives with her bi-racial 10-year-old son Doug (Kirk Calloway). Baggs later finds Doug out drinking beer, and lectures Maggie about her lack of motherly oversight towards her son. Noticing that Doug is often left to fend for himself, Baggs begins spending time with him, while also developing a relationship with Maggie, with whom he is falling in love. The couple almost break up when Baggs learns Maggie is pregnant by a man she knew before she met Baggs, but they reconcile and Baggs accepts responsibility for the unborn child as well.