Bright Lights, Big City

Five days in the life of twenty-something Jamie Conway in New York City is presented. His brother Michael is urgently trying to reach him, but Jamie is doing whatever he can to avoid seeing Michael, let alone even talk to him. Jamie knows full well why Michael is trying to contact him at this point in time, the reason which is still too painful for Jamie with which to deal. Jamie is also dealing with his wife Amanda's abandonment, she an up and coming model who decided not to return to New York after a business trip to Paris, she, not having even talked to Jamie, working through a lawyer for divorce proceedings. These issues in combination have led to Jamie turning to drugs - specifically cocaine - alcohol and partying night after night with his friend Tad Allagash to cope. These coping mechanisms have in turn led to Jamie not being able to function in his day-to-day life, including at his job as a fact checker with a major magazine that prides itself on the factual accuracy of their articles. Jamie got into this work hoping eventually to transfer to the creative side of the magazine as a writer. But his career looks to be turning in the other direction as a moved up deadline by his boss Clara Tillinghast he believes is a tactic as grounds for dismissal if he does not complete the article satisfactorily by the deadline. Two other things that happen this week affect what happens to Jamie. First, Tad asks him as a favor to take out his cousin Vicky. And second, Amanda, without telling Jamie but which he discovers, returns to New York, he doing whatever he can to see her.