An anthropologist from an alien planet provides voice-over commentary for a documentary look at human courtship, mating, and reproduction: "complex, perverse, tragically beautiful: the earthbound human." The commentary gets some of the details comically wrong (explaining the slap on a newborn's back: "they don't like the looks of the child so they beat it"), but gets right the overall idea. We follow Billy and Jenny from their meeting at a club, initial misunderstandings, his losing her phone number, finally connecting, walks on the beach, soulful talks, meeting each other's parents, friends' advice, and the gradual taking of the relationship to new levels.

The dumb loser Frank Muzzy invites his alcoholic friend and gravedigger Eddie to raise some money bootlegging US$ 250,000.00 in cigarettes for the powerful mobster Spider to Mexico. However, their truck catches fire and they lose the load. Frank becomes desperate to raise the amount, and hides himself with Eddie in the house of his mother. When Frank sees in the newspaper the picture of Crystal Harkness, the wife of the tycoon Harkness, Eddie confirms that she was a former strip dancer and buried with a valuable necklace. Frank forces Eddie to exhume her body, but they do not find the jewel. Frank brings Crystal's corpse to his hideout and decides to ask a ransom to Harkness getting into a deeper trouble, while Eddie falls in love for Crystal