Evan, a self-destructive poet, bombs on stage at a poetry reading in Amsterdam. He spends the night in the Red Light District meeting a cast of drunk and drugged characters. On his return to his home in New Jersey he appears with his independent publisher as a “defendant” on a “Judge Judy,” “People’s Court” type show. Evan later loses his job for stealing toilet paper and guest lectures his friend’s poetry class leading the students into a busy New York street almost causing an accident. He leaves the country again spending his inheritance on a plane ticket to Moscow where he gets in trouble with the Russian Mob and next winds up at a boxing match where the audience rushes the ring after a fighter forfeits.
Back at home Evan receives a call from a top agent who wants to publish his book because this agent was at the reading in Amsterdam, saw him on the “Judge Judy” TV show and then also saw the televised airing of the boxing match in Moscow. Evan celebrates at an underground New York brothel and a bouncer shoots him. He ends up on a gurney in a hospital looking like he is going to die and the movie ends leaving the audience hanging.