The film chronicles three desperate days in a then impoverished lower Manhattan neighborhood, New York's skid row: the Bowery. It is the story of Ray (Ray Salyer), a railroad worker, who drifts on to the Bowery to have a drunken spree after a long bout of laying tracks and then falls in with a band of drunks who help him spend his money.
Ray, the "new guy on the Bowery," whose biceps still fill out his sleeves, looks preoccupied as he enters the "Confidence Bar & Grill". Surrounded by various alcoholics in advanced states of decay, he buys them rounds of drinks, then blacks out on his first night, and wakes up to discover that his suitcase has been stolen.
The thief (Gorman Hendricks) becomes the closest thing he has to a friend...and just like that, Ray embarks on a trip to hell, becoming part of the Bowery. In a series of Beckettian portraits, the protagonists, congregations of winos, listless listeners, blubber through numerous bar scenes, games of dominos around a flophouse stove, and a sermon at the Bowery Mission. Will Ray find his way out of this uncaring urban jungle?

故事讲一个南非北部乡村的男人，到约翰内斯堡城里谋生的故事；那时的南非，种族隔离政策；是的黑人在城里工作，只能白天进城，晚上出城；而城里的工作需要有工作签证许可，白人与黑人地位的不同，生活的境遇也是天上地下；男人工作换了又换，却还在去另一个城市还是回乡中徘徊；男人的女人来了，男人的压力也大了；女人积极面对生来的处境，想要外出工作补贴家用和为孩子上学存钱；男人面对城市生活带来的改变以及家中女人谋求独立的要求；城市的繁华与游离的失业，传统的习俗和男人的家庭地位，在变革中的社会里，家庭面临的危机如平静水面下的暗涌。