A fat Bavarian tourist (Marianne Sagebrecht) is dumped by her husband in the Arizona Desert and arrives, on foot and overdressed, at a truck-stop called the Bagdad Cafe. There she finds friendship with the initially irritable black owner (CCH Pounder) and something like romance with the resident weirdo artist (Jack Palance). The film was made into a television series with Whoopi Goldberg in the CCH Pounder role.