Dwayne has plans. He’s working his way through college, and he has no doubt that he’s going to be an architect one day. But until that day, Dwayne is stuck working at the box office of a miserable little porno theater. Boring job, usually, and today especially so. His co-worker, Chulo, seems bent on distracting Dwayne from his homework.  Mister straight and narrow, maybe Dwayne needs a distraction. Chulo pulls out a joint, and Dwayne decides: what the heck. What could go wrong?

It’s 1979 on Block E, a woebegone Times Square-type district filled with characters of all stripes—hookers and the homeless, addicts and drug dealers. But the streets also belong to the hopeful—the many people wanting so much more. These are the Tales of Block E, three intersecting stories of people in a place and a time long gone but not forgotten.