Brad Forrest [Matt Day] and Gregor O'Reiley [Jason Barry] are two medical students living in a shabby apartment, crushed by debt to a ruthless loan shark. Their grades are slipping, and Professor Charles Lawrence [Marshall Napier] warns that they could be expelled if they don’t pass their exams. The pressure mounts as they scrape by, trying to keep their heads above water while juggling lectures, late-night study, and the constant threat of failure.
One night, the pair sneak into Prof. Lawrence’s office and overhear a chilling conversation about Dr. Browning’s demand for organs for transplant operations. Their curiosity quickly spirals into a dangerous scheme. Later, they witness a man plummet to his death from a building. In a brutal act of desperation, they steal his kidney and sell it to Dr. Browning, financing a lavish meal with the profits. The theft does not go unnoticed; two paramedics who take custody of the dead body realize that the right kidney has vanished, setting off a dangerous new line of inquiry.
Buoyed by their first success, Brad and Gregor double down. They stalk a drunk at a club and strip him of his kidney, selling it to Browning once again. The doctor informs the paramedics that there is fresh competition in the organ trade, and the pressure to stay ahead grows. A mugging provides a third kidney and deepens the peril, but it also turns the duo into targets; the same vigilant paramedics spot them again, and the cops are left scratching their heads as a missing kidney mystery deepens the case surrounding a neighbor’s assault and the odd behavior of the victims.
With the money rolling in, Gregor urges Brad to experience more of life, including calling girls. Brad agrees to see a woman named Veronica, only to discover it is Sophie [Petra Yared], a fellow student paying her way through college. The pair decide they need one more kidney to break free from debt entirely, and they set their sights on their landlord. While rummaging through a hospital computer to pull up the landlord’s medical file, they are spotted by Nurse Armstrong [Caroline Gillmer], who plays a crucial role in the escalating danger around them. After overpowering the landlord to steal his kidney, the loan shark’s gangsters misinterpret the power dynamics and push the landlord down the stairs, leaving him badly injured. Brad hands over the third kidney to Browning but correctly surmises that the doctor himself is after the liver, revealing Browning’s liver cancer. The landlord is rushed to the hospital, and Nurse Armstrong recognizes his name on the computer, triggering a broader investigation by the medical staff and paramedics.
Prof. Lawrence later informs Brad and Gregor that they have passed the exams, and the two celebrate their dubious success. The following day at a golf course, paramedics confront Gregor and threaten him if he continues trafficking kidneys. Detectives visit the boys’ apartment to ask about the neighbor and the landlord’s assault, but the investigation fails to pin anything on them. Meanwhile, Mr. Rogers goes to the hospital for a routine check-up and is attended by Nurse Armstrong. While Nurse Armstrong and Rogers are together, he dies of a heart attack, and she calls the paramedics to remove his liver. Brad and Gregor race to the hospital to claim the liver first, and a chaotic fight erupts between the two et al. gangsters and the doctors, with paramedics arriving to break up the melee. In the end, the detectives close the case by linking the landlord’s death to the gangsters, and the campus finally marks a ceremonial finish to the students’ troubling ascent.
As graduation arrives, the twisted path of their crime catches up with them in a strange balance of success and consequence: Gregor wins the golf championship, while Brad earns the college medal, leaving them with a paradoxical sense of achievement amid the fallout of their actions.
