Enter the seedy, smoky world of London's clubland in the late 1970s. Helen Mirren stars as Beaty, a self-destructive woman whose life has encompassed drugs, prostitution and a dangerous gangster lover. While she is working as a hostess in a nightclub she meets, and falls in love with, a mysterious young American, Emory (John Shea). As he tries to accept Beaty's past (including the murderous ex-lover who is soon to be let out of prison) he is drawn into the deadly dealings of the underworld.