A slice-of-life story unfolds inside The Florentine, a bar in a Pennsylvania steel town whose brightest days are behind it, leaving behind many of life's disillusioned "losers." Its owner, Whitey, is deep in debt to the town's loan shark, Joe McCollough, and desperate for a path forward which won't cost him the bar. His sister, Molly, is days away from her long-awaited nuptials, and then her former fiancé, Teddy, shows up in town for the first time since leaving her at the altar years before. Ne'er-do-well Billy Belasco runs a con on Frankie to steal the money for the wedding caterer, while long-time regular Bobby becomes a patron-cum-inhabitant as he hides from his fast-crumbling marriage to Vikki. Every plot in this multi-layered story seems to be at its nadir just as a pair of unlikely heroes emerge out of the backdrop to turn everything around.
Henry Hackett is the workaholic editor of a New York City tabloid. He loves his job, but the long hours and low pay are leading to discontent. Also, publisher Bernie White faces financial straits, and has hatchet-man Alicia Clark—Henry's nemesis—impose unpopular cutbacks.
Frank Galvin is a down-on-his-luck lawyer and reduced to drinking and ambulance chasing, when a former associate reminds him of his obligations in a medical malpractice suit by serving it to Galvin on a silver platter—all parties are willing to settle out of court. Blundering his way through the preliminaries, Galvin suddenly realizes that the case should actually go to court—to punish the guilty, to get a decent settlement for his clients... and to restore his standing as a lawyer.