A man is trying to quit smoking. He promises to himself that he will only smoke when the character in his stories does so. He sits down to write a story about a man that breaks up with his girlfriend and ends up spending his Saturday night locked away in his studio apartment drinking tequila and smoking cigarettes while trying to fix the reception on his television. The man is running low on cigarettes and must walk to the convenience store on the corner to buy more. After leaving the lobby of his building he lights a cigarette and decides to take the alley to the store. During the walk a young guy around 18 stops him to ask for a cigarette. The man tells the guy that he only has a single cigarette left and apologizes. The guy pulls out a knife and demands to be given both the man's last cigarette and his wallet. Stunned the man hands over his smokes and his wallet. The guy sees that they're not menthol and crushes the pack and throws it at the man before he runs off. The man is relieved to be safe and opens the crushed pack to repair the broken smoke. After he performs tobacco surgery he gingerly lights up and walks to the convenience store, hoping to be able to use the phone. The store is apparently empty. After calling out for the attendant for some time, he decides to steal a pack of cigarettes and a litter of tequila. He is spotted by the clerk as he leaves, and with his adrenaline pumping he runs back to his apartment. He checks his pockets to see that his keys are missing. He walks back to the alley in search of them, thinking that he dropped them while being robbed. There he finds his wallet, with the little money he had missing and his cards and pictures strewn about. He gathers them up and puts them back in his wallet and then the wallet to his pocket, lights a cigarette and heads back to his apartment without finding the keys. Near the end of the alley he hears a voice asking for a smoke and he breaks off in a run back to his apartment. A policeman sees him running from his squad car and stops him asking if he had been by the convenience store. Winded the man says that he was robbed while walking through the alley. The cop brings the man towards the alley only to see the mugger start running away. The cop tells the man to stay put and runs after the perpetrator. After weighing his options the man decides to go back to his apartment. He retrieves his tequila and climbs the fire escape to his window. Checking the window he finds it locked from within. He lights a cigarette and debates whether to break in through the window, but, inevitably decides against it since the super probably wouldn't fix it for weeks and he can't risk another break in. While sitting with his legs over the side of the landing, drinking tequila and smoking cigarettes he considers his options. Besides the super that rarely responds to help, the only other person that has a key is his ex-girlfriend. At four o'clock in the morning he decides to call her on his cell phone to help him out. He doesn't get a answer so he leaves a drunken message telling her about his night and his current position. Midway through the message he decides that the call was a mistake and hangs up. He takes a drink and lights a smoke and then calls the super to open his door. The super tells him that it may take a couple hours and that he'll call back when he can do it. In the meantime he awaits the super on the fire escape, smoking cigarettes and finishing his tequila. He planned on watching the sunrise, but fell asleep while he was trying to light another smoke. While dreaming he feels the cigarette on his lips being pulled on, and awakes just in time to see his ex-girlfriend tossing it over the side of the fire escape. The window to his apartment is open and they both go in and decide to talk. The super never returned the call.