A nameless barman tends a decaying bar in Hollywood & takes notes for a book about his clientele. Initially he is morbidly amused by watching the regulars roll in & fall into their nightly oblivion pitying them & their loneliness. In hopes of uncovering their secrets & motives he establishes tentative friendships with them. He also knocks back pills indiscriminately & treats himself to gallons of Jameson's. But as his tenure at the bar continues he begins to lose himself trapped by addiction & indecision. When his wife leaves him he embarks on a series of squalidly random sexual encounters & a downward spiral of self-damage & irrational violence. To cleanse himself & save his soul he attempts to escape.. .