In Los Angeles, California, a car thief and sometime drug runner named Joey Turks steals a television from Mort, a professional narcotics trafficker, who failed to pay Joey $400 for a recent job. When Joey explains he is seeking collateral, Mort threatens him with a knife and the young man drops the television. Running away with a bleeding arm, Joey stumbles into Sunnyside Cemetery, where a young woman named Mona burns photographs of former lovers and prepares to commit suicide. As she puts a razor to her wrist, Joey collapses on top of her, unwittingly preventing the suicide. Although Mona claims her life is miserable, she agrees to forestall her suicide to bandage Joey’s arm. Back at Mona’s apartment, Joey thanks her for saving his life. She later ingests a pink pill called “Libido,” also known as LBD, which intoxicates its users with indomitable erotic lust, and she seduces Joey. Elsewhere, at a police shooting range, two rookie detectives chide their senior officer, Hank Dick, about his many unsolved cases. Turning his gun away from target practice, Hank aims at the fledgling policemen, but they remind him that murder will discount his upcoming pension. The next morning, Mona is sickened from an LBD hangover and orders Joey to leave, but quickly changes her mind. Collecting personal items from a bus station locker, Joey pilfers money from an old lady to pay a late fee. Outside, he is tempted to steal a car, but instead is detained by Officer Dick, who remembers the boy from past transgressions. Dick drives him back to Mort’s house and Joey sees the drug dealer floating dead in his blood-soaked swimming pool. Declaring that Joey’s fingerprints were found at the scene, Dick blackmails the boy into helping him expose the LBD drug ring and apprehend its mastermind, H. Spuntz, who has been eluding Dick for twenty years. Sometime later, Joey watches Mona sing at a club, followed by the “speed metal” band of her antagonistic former lover, Lance. Outside, Joey is seized by Spuntz’s sadistic henchman, Bart Daniels, who takes him back to Mort’s pool. There, Bart dangles Joey’s head in the bloody water as Spuntz demands to know the location of the LBD, and Joey realizes his unpaid $400 job entailed transporting the drug. Claiming that Mort’s missing stash is the only batch of LBD in the world, Spuntz explains that the product fulfills the human desire for love, while turning its users into addicts. When Joey is unable to reveal the whereabouts of Spuntz’s $1 million inventory, Bart inserts a “personalized bullet” into Joey’s unloaded pistol and plays Russian roulette, forcing the young man to feign knowledge of the drug’s location. Joey directs Bart on a futile car ride to Mona’s club and pulls the parking brake, causing Bart to knock his head against the steering wheel. With Bart unconscious, Joey retrieves his gun and escapes to the club, where he rescues Mona from Lance’s seduction. Outside, he steals a car and suggests they leave town, but Mona convinces him to stay, and he throws the gun out the car window. The next day, Joey swipes another vehicle, recovers the weapon, and meets car embezzler, Ack, at a Chinese restaurant. There, Joey learns that Spuntz’s pilfered LBD must be missing because it is not circulating among street dealers. Ack advises Joey to seek advice from former drug lord, now New Age family man, Sammy Rhodes. In Sammy’s immaculately manicured garden, Joey asks him to partner in the theft of Spuntz’s LBD, but Sammy claims to be retired from the drug trade. Later, Joey is accosted by Bart at the Oki-Dog hot dog stand, but Officer Dick shows up and escorts him back to the Chinese restaurant, where Ack has been shot in the forehead. In the men’s restroom, Dick holds Joey at gunpoint, and the boy reveals his theory that Spuntz hides LBD and kills his dealers to monopolize the inventory. As Joey lies unconscious in the restaurant bathroom, Mona gets high on LBD in her apartment, anticipating her lover’s return. When Joey comes to, he is again abducted by Bart and taken to Spuntz’s “borrowed” mansion for a decadent feast, where they listen to Guiseppe Verdi’s opera Otello. However, Joey escapes to Mona’s apartment, where he finds her intoxicated with LBD. Learning the drugs came from Lance, Joey returns to the club and holds the rocker at gunpoint, only to learn the LBD was procured from Mort. Joey telephones Officer Dick for help to no avail. Just then, Bart finds Joey and a chase ensues; however, a club-goer pushes Bart in front of a car and helps Joey escape. When Bart recovers from the collision, he stumbles into the club, abducts Mona and Lance, and tracks down Joey. As Bart aims his gun, Mona throws off the shot and the club-goer is killed instead of Joey. Escaping to Sammy’s house, Joey appeals for help, claiming he only wants enough money to leave town. Sammy advises the young man to retrace his steps, so Joey returns to Mort’s pool the following day and hears rattling in a metal water heater. Inside the container, Joey uncovers the missing LBD and puts most of the drugs in a suitcase. Back at Mona’s apartment, Joey telephones Sammy, asking him to find a drug dealer who will pay $100,000 for the LBD, then schedules an exchange at Sunnyside Cemetery. As Joey asks Mona to leave town with him, Spuntz and Bart appear at her apartment and hold the couple at gunpoint. Eyeing the suspicious suitcase, Bart threatens Mona, forcing Joey to reveal its contents. Just then, Officer Dick arrives unexpectedly and detains Spuntz and Bart. Outside, the fugitives break free and trail Joey to the cemetery with Officer Dick following behind. There, Joey is shocked to find his drug connection is Sammy, the New Age guru who claims he needs money to support his family’s elaborate lifestyle. He attempts to shoot Joey, but is intercepted by Bart, who kills Sammy and chases Joey through the cemetery. Carrying Sammy’s briefcase of money and the suitcase of drugs, Joey stops to fire his gun, which is still loaded with Bart’s single “personalized bullet,” and kills Bart with his own ammunition. Meanwhile, Lance goes to Mort’s house to buy drugs and is surprised to find the dealer floating dead in his pool. As Lance discovers a remaining bag of LBD in the water heater, he is shot by Spuntz, who has returned to Mort’s house from the cemetery. At the same time, Officer Dick appears and fires at Spuntz. Dick informs the dying drug dealer that he paid $1 million for a fraudulent product. Back at the cemetery, Mona meets Joey. As they walk away toward a new life together with $100,000, Joey drops the drugs into an open grave. Stealing yet another car, he suggests they move to a “safe, quiet town,” then speeds toward Las Vegas, Nevada.