One year after becoming the toast of New York''s art scene, hotshot photographer Max Martin finds himself incapable of taking a decent photo. On the night before his make-or-break gallery opening, a despondent Max heads for a bar where a mysterious stranger he befriends hands him an envelope containing 10 highly impressionistic, chiaroscuro photographs. Before Max can decide whether or not to pass off these indelible images as his own, he helps a mugging victim, only to lose all but one of the photos. This unfortunate incident triggers a fantastical midnight pilgrimage through the streets of Lower Manhattan -- and encounters with several urban misfits -- to track down the photos.