The film is about a postapocalyptic quest set against a backdrop of urban deprivation.

The masses are homeless, theft is so rampant it is no longer a crime, and death - by arranging either suicide or assassination - is the only way out. Buildings collapse daily, driving huge numbers of citizens into the streets, where they starve or die of exposure - if they aren't murdered by other vagrants first. Government forces haul away the bodies, and licensed scavengers collect trash and precious human waste. Weird cults form around the most popular methods of suicide. Anne Blume (Green) comes to this unnamed city in search of her brother and finds friendship - even love - amid the devastation.