Dan Minos lives in Brooklyn with his mother in the 1960s, and he enjoys learning interesting things about the world by reading the news. One day, he reads about a prize race horse that had to be put down mid-flight after going berserk on an airplane. He tries to tell his mother about it, but she doesn't listen. Another hobby of Dan's is wandering around the city in the evenings, to the annoyance of his mother. One night, he sees a girl moving a drunk man out of the street, so he goes to help her. Afterward, Dan walks around the city with her, and he learns that she works for the city taking care of the homeless and the destitute. He follows her to a warehouse where a line of men wait. After going inside, the girl calls to them in several languages, and they begin to chase her. She and Dan run until they cannot see any of the men. Then, the girl embraces Dan and runs off. Dan loses her but plans on searching the streets every night until he finds her. He returns home at about four in the morning to find his mother worried sick.