A scientist recruits volunteers for the trial of a new recreational drug that exclusively affects women. Among them is "Number 4," who becomes emotionally involved with first the scientist and then his wife, a well-known visual artist in the midst of a creative crisis. The scientist is oblivious to the atrocities his new drug will bring to the city; his wife is oblivious to the superfluousness of the objects she has made her life's work exhibiting in galleries and museums. Despite prominence as designers of artificial emotional states, Number 4's presence in their lives pierces their complacency, gradually undoing the many certainties they've accumulated in their lives of ease.