A girl from Ohio winds up alone in New York City and meets an older woman outside a porn theater. The woman takes the girl back to her apartment, and the two begin a disturbing and obsessive sexual relationship. The girl lives in the woman’s apartment and becomes dependent on her emotionally and for shelter. The apartment is located in a poor part of New York City, and they make rent with the woman’s alimony from a previous divorce. Tito, a Puerto Rican man, also depends on the woman’s apartment for shelter, but he shortly moves out after the girl arrives. Before leaving, he warns her that they are both easily replaceable for the older woman, who will never keep anyone around so long as rent control allows her to keep control of the apartment. As seen from the perspective of the girl, the entire city is crawling with rats and cockroaches and especially boys. Although she is groomed by the woman to never desire or trust a boy, the girl finds herself desiring to be with one and decides to go searching. After wandering the city, she approaches a car full of teenage boys and asks to join them. They take her to a club, and she singles out one of the boys and drives off separately with him to the Hudson river. While losing her virginity, she begins to think about the older woman. She talks with the boy, who is a self-described drug addict with low expectations for himself. After her encounter with the boy, the girl returns to the apartment and repeats over and over that she is now a “marked woman” before falling asleep in the arms of the older woman.