Sonny is a frustrated 31 year-old bellhop at a rapidly declining hotel in Tacoma, Washington. With little to live for save for caring for his mentally retarded brother in their squalid apartment, Sonny makes ends meet by stealing goods from the hotel and selling them or by procuring sex for the hotel guests. When two people enter Sonny's bleak life, though, things begin to look up: suicidal beauty Monique (Laure Marsac) and Del (Bruce Ramsay), a former colleague of Sonny's who now has some cash in his pockets. Del has a business proposition for Sonny: steal money deposited in the hotel safe which was intended as stakes for a poker game organized by crime boss Ish (Philip Baker Hall) and head for Paris. Sonny has nothing to lose--but if he fails, the results could be deadly. This bleak, effective noir, based on a book by Jim Thompson (THE KILLERS, THE GRIFTERS, KISS ME DEADLY) was directed by Steven Shainberg (SECRETARY).