A garbage truck rumbles by a desolate corner in lower Manhattan. Clarissa, asleep on the cold sidewalk nearby, awakes. She unties her bookbag from herself and goes through her morning routine: packs her few possessions in a garbage bag and hides it in a dumpster, scrounges for change for a coffee to keep warm, and settles into her spot in Central Park. There, she sets out some photos she has taken--an illegal vendor pawning her goods to passers-by looking for a cheap portrait. Her last and prize possession--the one thing she did not abandon when she took to the streets--is her camera.

Out of money and desperate to print a couple of photos, she goes to Ralph's apartment. Her elder brother, Ralph lives in a swanky doorman building overlooking Central Park--and luckily has a color printer that he lets Clarissa use for her "commissions." He disagrees with the way Clarissa has chosen to lead her life, and they argue about her decision not to tell their parents.

After selling a photo to a woman in the park, Clarissa has enough money to see a photography exhibit at a nearby gallery. There, after being thrown out because her presence is disturbing other patrons, she meets Tobias.

Seemingly blind to her homelessness, Tobias leads Clarissa through a walk in Central Park. An odd romance surfaces. Tobias quickly ruins things, running out on her after they first have sex. She turns to her brother for support, but Ralph is busy schmoozing with some real estate mogul. He turns her out onto the streets during a brutal winter storm.

Suddenly, time is set back. The world is somewhow different--as seen through Tobias' eyes.

Tobias gets fired from his tenth job in a row. This time, he just couldn't hold his tongue when a racist customer sitting at one of his tables had the audacity to insult him. Between looking for another shit job he doesn't really want and attending his usual smorgasbord of advanced classes at City College, he stops by an art gallery for a photography exhibit.