After years of seeing life through a kaleidoscope, Daniel Bloom is declaring himself to be gone - to be "Not Here." He is a surrealist painter from New York, and he is struggling for a clear head and an escape from the pressures of the outside world. A beautiful girl appears in his life to help guide him, but he can only see her through mysterious visions that nearly drive him mad. His obsession only makes him more reclusive, turning away his art dealer and the women in his life. Who is this girl? Is she for real? Or is she just a figment of his imagination? He will do anything to find out, even if it costs him everything.

Jack Frost's playboy lifestyle in New York City is rocked by the news that his childhood love is engaged. Amidst his friendships with Scotch Evans, a ribald nightlife correspondent; Ozzy, a troubled but loving heroin addict; and Kate Hardwick, a bewitching, quick-witted reporter, Jack sinks deeper into depression. Haunted by lost-love and his mother's suicide, Jack plunges into whiskey and self-destruction . . . until his eleven-year-old neighbor, Sophie, an unlikely mother figure, leads Jack back into himself, and out of the nostalgia and excess that consumed him.