Sleazy carnival stripper, Stacey (Meg Myles), has a confrontation with her junkie ex-husband in a dressing room strung with lingerie, he says he's off the horse and has a wad to prove it. She steals the $900 from him and flies off to New York City. She picks up a mark on the plane and bounces him on a mattress at a dive hotel for the connections he has to New York night life, which she parlays into a shot at a cabaret act. She plays footsie with the lesbian club manager Pepe (Hall) and gets the spot, but she wants more. She strings along the club owner who sets her up in a fancy apartment, but she falls for the owner's son. When her desperate ex-husband finally tracks her down, she manipulates him, plotting a way to kill two birds with one stone to get what she wants.