Mickey Cole (Donavon Warren) has slit his wrists, rolled onto train tracks and thrown himself down stairs. He is a suicidal paraplegic who has restless nights with vivid dreams of walking again. After many suicide attempts, Mickey decides he needs help and seeks someone he believes has no scruples and would do anything for money.
In 1983 Australia, television repairman Ray Jenkins (Angus Sampson) and his football team celebrate the end of their season by spending the weekend in Thailand. Ray's best friend Gavin (Leigh Whannell), a small-time criminal working for local property owner/crime lord Pat Shepherd (John Noble), asks Ray to transport heroin on flight back. Ray refuses, but finds out his step-father is deeply in gambling debt, and his mother will be targeted if he does not pay up. He agrees to transport the heroin. In Thailand, while wandering through the markets, Gavin goes to pick up half a kilogram of heroin to bring back to Pat. Before he leaves, he purchases an extra half kilogram to sell on his own. At the hotel, Gavin hides the heroin in condoms, coercing Ray to swallow them. Upon their arrival at Melbourne Airport, Ray begins to panic and is eventually detained by customs officials. Believing that Ray is a drug trafficker, he is arrested by Australian Federal Police agents Croft and Paris (Hugo Weaving and Ewen Leslie). Ray's lawyer Jasmine Griffiths (Georgina Haig) tells Ray that he can only be held in a hotel room for four days.
The work was an adaptation of Timothy Shay Arthur's novel Ten Nights in a Bar-Room and What I Saw There. The Moving Picture World synopsis states: "Despite the fact that he is a loving husband and father, Joe Morgan ruins his life by his fondness for drink and finally becomes a seemingly hopeless drunkard. He spends his time and money in the saloon kept by Slade, the man who took away Joe's mill and largely caused his financial ruin. Slade's saloon, when he first opened it, was well furnished, the landlord courteous and well groomed, and the customers happy and seemingly unaffected by their surroundings. But as time passed, a change for the worse was noted in everything. Probably this escaped Joe's notice, for a sharp shot, indeed, was needed to reform him. That shock came. Joe's only daughter, Mary, was in the habit of going to the saloon and piteously urging her father to come home. She knew that no matter how intoxicated he might be, he would never harm her. But one evening when she appeared her father and Slade had been quarreling, and the saloonkeeper threw a bottle at Morgan, who dodged. The missile struck the child, entering. The blow resulted fatally, but before Mary died, she extracted a promise from her grief-stricken father that he would never drink again, a promise which he ever-afterward kept. In later years Joe became wealthy and respected, and influenced by the thought of his daughter in heaven he kept in the straight and narrow path. The saloon keeper who killed Mary was never punished by the law - but through the irony of fate his taking off was much like that of Joe Morgan's helpless child.
Customs agent Ward Jansen (Phillips Smalley) is sent to China to conduct an investigation into opium smuggling. His wife, Lydia (Lois Weber), is the daughter of local politician William Waters (Charles Hammond). Left behind in San Francisco and grieving the loss of their child, Lydia resorts to the drug and becomes an addict. When Jansen returns, he notices his wife's strange behavior but does not attribute it to drug addiction. Jansen continues his investigation in San Francisco, and some of the methods of smuggling rings and customs inspectors are depicted. The investigation eventually leads Jansen to raid an opium den in Chinatown where he discovers his wife and learns of her addiction. Jansen's investigation ultimately reveals that his father-in-law is a key player in the smuggling operation. Discovery, as well as guilt over his daughter's plight, leads to Waters' suicide. Jansen supports his wife and helps her through withdrawal to recovery.
After his wife dies, Allex becomes a self-destructive alcoholic. A mysterious doctor decides to show Allex the consequences of his actions, and the involuntary treatment leaves Allex with incisions. The doctor explains that whenever Allex drinks to excess, an implant will force him to violently murder people.
Soloman Crow (Sean Weathers) is a drug addict roaming the streets of Manhattan looking for marks to con out of their money and pretty women to con into sex. Looking to get off the streets for a while and kick his drug habit, he visits his brother Tyler P. Crow (Waliek Crandall), a god fearing, bible quoting, closeted homosexual. The character is a parody of playwright and filmmaker Tyler Perry. While staying there Soloman wastes little time running his mind games on his brother's wife, Tamia (Sybelle Silverphoenix), and together they concoct a murder plot against Tyler that goes terribly awry.
C'est l'histoire d'amour entre deux femmes toxicomanes, l'une est une prostituée (Noelle Messier), l'autre conducteur de camion (Amber Dawn Lee). Elles vont entrer en conflit avec un trafiquant de drogue.
New York City reporter Larry Brand is sent to Stockholm to do a story on Swedish morals. A traffic accident leads him into rescuing a strip tease artiste from drug addiction and pits him against a ruthless criminal gang.