A young college grad, Naomi turns down law school to pursue poetry, despite her father’s objections. She subsequently struggles to survive in 1993 Denver, after being cut off by her father during a period of violent crime in the city known as the Summer of Violence.
A photographer on a trip to Japan meets a fellow American woman and they quickly fall in love. However, when he returns home to the US, he discovers that she is his girlfriend's older sister.