Danish independent filmmaker Erik meets Paul, a lawyer while working in New York. The next years they have a passionate long-term relationship, which is complicated by Paul's drug addiction. As Erik is getting more successful as a filmmaker, Paul sinks deeper in his addiction, evantually forcing Erik to break up.
The film is based on director Ira Sachs' own relationship with literary agent Bill Clegg and Clegg's memoir 'Portrait of an Addict as a Young Man'.