The movie opens with the following disclaimer: “In December of 1993 the Honorable David Dinkins was completing his first and only term as Mayor of New York.” An unnamed Latin-American married couple outwardly lives as affluent socialites - sending their daughter to a private school, living in a high-rise with doormen - but earn their money commuting to a drab Flushing apartment where, with their relatives, they package and sell heroin.

On Christmas Eve, the husband takes an ostensibly routine meeting while the wife visits an illicit pawnshop hoping to obtain a popular sold-out "Party Girl" doll for their daughter.

As she attempts to gather these during a time when clients and family are out of contact for the Christmas holiday, the husband is beaten by a gang whose manner of speaking suggests they are rogue police.

When the wife returns, the liaison gets strangely familiar with her, asking personal questions about their marriage, and warns her to make sure he stops dealing.

At a lavish party they attend, the husband is briefly diverted by some of his dealers, who reveal they have found and killed the associate who asked him to sit on the heroin, assuming that he had tipped off the cops who kidnapped him.