When the mix is right and the music tight, the seedy downtown bar shakes with frenetic fusion as students, hipsters, artists, hoods, hookers, and undercover cops ride the same funky beat to the end of the night. This changes after an artist, a punk band drummer, and a homeless man die in a fire discovered to be arson. It is the year of Orwell in a city so cold even Big Brother doesn't bother with it. The uneasy peace between the artists and hoods who hang out in the bar begins to unravel. Survivors of the fire struggle. Scott Kostyk's wife died and guilt overwhelms his grief while igniting a desire to paint. Tony Bender, the arson architect, planning to avoid prison, contends with his competition for the drug trade in the bar and goes to the assistance of Sarah Grant, a Métis woman, dealing with the abuse of her daughter.