A Bosnian journalist visits America during the Bosnian ethnic cleansing and moves into a dirty Chicago apartment with a woman he once met and her on-and-off boyfriend. He takes on a series of humiliating jobs and tries to avoid thinking about the unknown fate of his parents.

An overweight man from New York tries to get his girlfriend to marry him so that when he dies, she will receive his life insurance, but when the woman's ex comes around, the relationship begins to fall apart.