Charlie (Futterman) is driven to distraction by everything around him ... and the fact that everyone he meets has a story to tell, most of which are folk tales involving a friend of a friend. And as he wanders into the night, his own story starts to take shape as we realise he's desperately missing his boyfriend Chris (Keeslar), and he's seeking answers to unasked questions in a friendly bartender (Hamilton), an old friend (Cumming), a homeless stutterer (Bluteau), a soap star (Olds), a pair of noisy neighbours (Sage and Dodds), a local con man (Wheir) and, most notably, a tattooed mystery man (Ball) "who's going to make everything right" ... somehow.

Shear's sense of visual style is astonishing, getting us into Charlie's heart and mind with real visual and thematic flourish, filling the frames with colour and humour (much of which is dark and hilarious, like the appearance of a woman with her soaking wet poodle!), and letting us hear the sounds of the city. Soon our own paranoia is reaching Charlie's levels as we take this difficult journey with him to a shattering, revelatory conclusion.