Joey Turks, Billy Zane, is a car thief in Los Angeles who needs money to get out of town. The film opens with him lifting a television from the home of drug dealer Mort, who owes him cash, but Joey is caught red-handed when he drops the TV and it breaks. Mort stabs him in a fit of rage and chases him away. Bleeding, Joey slips into a cemetery where he meets Mona, Jennifer Beals, an aspiring singer who is contemplating suicide over tangled past relationships. Mona takes him to her apartment to tend his wounds and invites him to stay a while, offering a glimmer of safety amid the chaos.
Soon after, Detective Hank Dick, Darren McGavin, arrives at Mort’s place with sharp sarcasm, warning Joey that he could end up in jail. Joey is taken to Mort’s house, where he discovers Mort has been shot and lies dead in the pool. With his fingerprints found all over the scene, Joey becomes the prime suspect. Under pressure, he tells Hank that he only delivered a package for a man named Spuntz, which makes Hank realize that Joey might actually be innocent and that he has been hunting Spuntz for twenty years. Knowing Joey could be Spuntz’s next target, Hank urges him to help track the elusive criminal.
That night, outside a club, Joey is nabbed by Bart Daniels, Mark Pellegrino, who forcibly drives him to Mort’s house where Spuntz awaits. Spuntz presses for the whereabouts of the package, but Joey insists he doesn’t know. Spuntz explains that the missing package contained Libido, a hallucinogenic drug that heightens sexual drive and is highly addictive, a stock-in-trade for big profits. Joey remains noncommittal, while Bart begins to threaten with a game of Russian roulette. After a few close calls, Joey capitulates and offers to take Bart to “the location.” In the car, Joey seizes Bart’s gun and makes a break for it, eventually reuniting with Mona and pulling her into a stolen car as they decide to flee town. Yet Mona suggests they might have to go their separate ways, and they ultimately choose to return to her apartment.
The next day, a restaurant contact informs Joey that Spuntz has a million dollars invested in the missing package. He seeks help from Sammy Rhodes, Harry Shearer, but Sammy refuses and tells Joey to cut his losses. Mona calls to ask him to come home, but Hank reappears at the restaurant with a new urgency—the contact is found dead, shot in the forehead. Hank accuses Joey of meeting Spuntz, while Joey insists he’s not the type to deal in such crimes and explains that the drug dealer eliminates anyone in possession of the drugs to maintain his monopoly. On the walk home, Bart ambushes him again, forcing him to join Spuntz and Bart for dinner. Spuntz warns him that he’s been betrayed and leaves him alone with Bart, who is drugged and menacingly suggests sex.
After a tense escape, Joey returns to Mona’s flat and discovers a pill on the floor—Lance, James Le Gros, Mona’s ex, reveals that he obtained it from Mort long ago. Threatened, Lance confesses the pill came from Mort. Outside, Bart continues to pursue Joey in a car, but a helpful young man he had spoken with days earlier helps them escape. They hide at a restaurant and realize they cannot stay there, but Bart suddenly arrives and shoots the young man in the forehead, while Joey manages to flee again.
Back at Mort’s place, Joey contemplates the impossibility of solving the puzzle and realizes that all the bags of drugs have been swallowed by the pool’s filter pump. He packs them into a suitcase and resolves to leave town with Mona, who initially resists but eventually agrees. Just then, Spuntz and Bart show up to demand the drugs, and Hank swoops in to arrest them. Joey makes a dash for the cemetery, but the criminals steal Hank’s gun and pursue him. In the cemetery, Joey meets Sammy Rhodes, Harry Shearer again, intending to strike a deal for the money. Sammy instead pulls a gun, asking Joey for forgiveness, but Bart appears from behind and shoots Sammy, then chases Joey deeper into the graveyard. Cornered, Joey fires the last bullet in his gun, killing Bart.
Meanwhile, Lance goes to Mort’s house and collects the final bags of the drug, only to be shot by Spuntz, who is in turn shot by Hank. Hank reveals the shocking twist: the “drug” was nothing more than caffeine, sedative, and laxative—an elaborate scam that misled everyone, and the two criminals tumble into Mort’s pool. In the end, Joey grabs Sammy’s money-filled suitcase, discards the worthless drug bags, and leaves the city with Mona, stepping into a future far from the danger that once surrounded them.
