After surviving all manner of abuse in his childhood due to his drunken father and a few other strange fellows that caught his mother's eye, young Charles Erwin Bayler, better known by his nicknames "Goodtime Charlie" or "Chuck" to many of his friends and acquaintances, finds himself trying his best to navigate through life the best way he knew how, with odd jobs, a good deal of booze and whatever else he could get his hands on to cope with what his life had become since those early years of pain and degradation. After a short stint in jail due to theft, Charley finds himself coming to the aid of a rather curious lad named Nolan Pierce, who had been in search of a new roommate, who brings him into the seedy underworld which had been more than he bargained for when he finds himself performing on stages for men and women alike just to pay the bills when his being a former felon keeps him out of the running for decent jobs.