Living in East Los Angeles and working at a Japanese jazz bar, a young short-order cook faces deportation to Japan when his visa is denied. After what seems to be a connection with a Mexican Bakery worker turns into a misunderstanding, Shin experiences a side of Los Angeles invisible to his social circle of Japanese expats. Subdued and restrained, the film offers an unsentimental and personal portrait of living in between time zones and cultures in a city indicative of a world growing smaller.

Craig, acid-dealing punk and aspiring chemist, pours a batch of failed speed on his brother Brock's marijuana, creating a drug that induces orgiastic funk parties. This makes Craig popular at school and allows Brock to exact revenge upon his emasculating ex-girlfriend, but it also damages Craig's budding relationship with a girl he may really like. Luther, a homicidal 70s-style drug kingpin, wants the formula, and comes to get it at GrooveTaco, the play-within-the-movie, an homage to lesbian assassin hookers written by Craig's psuedo-freudian drama teacher.