"Mike Leigh's raw and nasty character study of a collection of emotional cripples stars David Thewlis as Johnny, who is first seen in the dank, dark streets of Manchester, raping a woman against the side of a building. He flees the scene and travels to London to look up an old girlfriend, Louise (Lesley Sharp). After a bitter scene of verbal recriminations, Johnny engages in a violent and self-loathing relationship with Louise's roommate Sophie (Katrin Cartlidge), who inexplicably throws herself at Johnny in masochistic rage. Unable to deal with Sophie's newfound attachment to him, Johnny walks out on the relationship, heading out to the backstreets of London, where he encounters a variety of characters who are even more lost, hopeless, and self-defeating than himself."