A shimmering light descends from outer space and coalesces into the form of nubile, innocent teenager Candy Christian (Ewa Aulin), who already attends high school and has an uptight teacher father (John Astin). Quickly captivating every male in sight, Candy goes on a randy Pilgrim's Progress through a succession of oversexed father figures, including her father's twin brother Jack (also John Astin). Rogue poet McPhisto (Richard Burton) takes her from school, where she's assaulted by gardener Emmanuel (Ringo Starr). Escaping from Emmanuel's protective sisters, Candy and her injured father join rabid General Smight (Walter Matthau) in the back of his perpetually-aloft troop plane, where Smight naturally propositions Candy for some airborne R&R. In New York, father becomes the special guest patient of superstar brain surgeon Dr. Krankheit (James Coburn), who saves his life by affixing an electrical plug to the back of his head. After he takes her in a side room, the doctor's nurses chase Candy from the hospital, where she spends a wild night with weird hunchbacked vagrant (Charles Aznavour) before hitching a ride in the semi-truck / sacred shrine run by guru Grindl (Marlon Brando), who initiates her into a search for enlightenment through (of course) sex. The truck deposits Candy in the western desert, where she meets the ultimate guru Grindl has foretold. She follows him underground, to surface in a self-destructing Indian temple in the middle of Hollywood. There she discovers the identity of the ultimate, final wise man, reprises her strange odyssey, and returns to outer space as floating energy.
