Jim has driven around for an hour to get his daughter asleep. When he finally returns home, he finds his old buddy, Tony, sitting with his wife, Laura, and kids. While waiting for Jim, Tony told the family about the shenanigans they had gotten into when they were younger. Laura suggested she put the kids to bed, and then the three could have drinks and talk more. Jim opts for a bar instead, telling Laura not to wait up.

Once Jim and Tony leave the car, they drop the facade. Jim asks Tony why he's there and brought a gun. Tony desperately needs Jim's help because a drug dealer, Ellis, who used to supply them, has now become a drug lord, and he has an order out for Tony's murder. The problem is that Ellis has become increasingly violent and often murders and tortures people who stand in his way—a long cry from the small-time supplier they once knew him as. Ellis has a dead cop in his freezer and has been paying junkie parents to let him rape and abuse their young daughters. One day, Ellis handed Tony $10,000 and insisted that Tony stole it from him. While Ellis went to retrieve his machete, Tony ran away and has had a hit out on him ever since.

Now, Tony wants Jim to return the money and try to work out some deal with Ellis to spare his life. Tony thinks this will work because Ellis recently saw an article about Jim's career in film, and he wants Jim to make a movie about his life. Tony thinks Ellis has acted recklessly on purpose, showing everyone the cop's body and killing people impulsively because he is ready to die and feels that his dying wish is to have the movie made about him. When that alone doesn't convince Jim to go to Ellis's apartment, Tony blackmails him, too.

Jim makes his way up to Ellis's, going through multiple guards in the building. When he gets there, Ellis tells him a different story about the money and the cop. Ellis hadn't killed the cop but found him and kept his body as a way to scare people, and Tony did, in fact, steal from Ellis, then tried to return the money without consequence. Unable to convince Ellis to spare Tony, Jim leaves.

When he gets back to the car, Jim says that everything was resolved and tells Tony to go up and hash out the rest of the resolution, but promises that he'll be safe. Jim can see and hear signs of a struggle from the window and goes to a phone booth to call the police. Squadrons of cops show up, gunfire breaks out, and Ellis eventually falls out the window to his death. Jim doesn't leave until he counts five body bags: Tony, Ellis, and the three guards. Once he knows the situation has been resolved, Jim returns to his life in suburbia and reflects on how this story could be told through his art.