Michael is a struggling writer who lives in Los Angeles and has a strong aversion to most post-1970 technology — he hates cell phones, color television, compact discs, and reading news online. He also hates answering machines, which is why he ends up taking a call from his younger brother, Tobey, early one morning when he’d rather be asleep. Tobey, a recovering drug addict with a checkered past, doesn't have a car and asks Michael if he'd be willing to give him a ride across town. Tobey grudgingly agrees, but en route to his appointment, Michael asks to make a few stops, and what Tobey expected to be a short errand ends up being an all-day road trip through several seedy parts of L.A. As the day wears on, Tobey begins to suspect that his brother's errand isn't as benign as he'd been led to expect, and that they're both in for more than they bargained for.