The mute superintendent of a ramshackle apartment building, becomes the unwilling guardian of a little girl with an attitude.

A Christmas story. Charlie Gigot is a mute super at a dingy New York apartment building; he always wears a wool cap. One winter, a woman leaves her daughter Lou with Gigot, promising to be back the next day. Mom flakes out, and Gigot - who's down and out, probably with post-traumatic stress syndrome, has a drinking problem, and lives in a basement junk heap with a pet monkey - tries to find someone who will take Lou in. Winter gives way to spring; Gigot reluctantly becomes, in fits and starts, a parent. What if Lou's mom doesn't return; what are Charlie's options? His past may hold an answer.—<[email protected]>