Plot Summary

In New York City, Casi is 26 years old and has been out of law school for three years. He is a public defender and as he says in the narration of the first scene, there aren't enough people doing his job, and people who need help aren't getting enough of it.Twelve days before the collapse, Casi's first defendant in the movie is Ah-Chut, who does not speak English. There is no translator available. Getting him out of jail means appearing before the strict Judge Cymberline. He is not successful.Craig goes to the Tow Pound, telling Lea he is there to get a friend's car out. She can't help him. He offers her a lot of money and then flirts, but ultimately he is not successful. The car is a Lincoln Navigator which will be auctioned.The power goes out in much of the city. Casi needs a place to stay and visits Angus, who believes in conspiracy theories and has complicated equations on his blackboard. In a later visit, Angus explains the concept of a singularity in a black hole.Lea gets out of bed to find Craig using her computer. She throws him out.Ten days before the collapse, Casi hears two assistant DAs laughing about a Chinese prisoner. He demands to know more but they just laugh and get on the elevator. Casi meets with his friend Dane, another public defender who says Lea wants him to handle her case.Lea meets with Casi and explains what Craig wants and says she already has a record. In a flashback, she is shown at her job going to the car Craig wants and finding the drugs that are hidden there. Lea and Casi meet in a different location with Detectives Winston and Coburn who agree to let Lea help with the case.Casi has another defendant who has gotten clean. Normally, this would be good, but if he is clean, the defendant has a better chance of doing prison time. As a joke, Casi suggests the best thing for the man might be to go to Cuba. But when the man and Casi appear before Judge Cymberline, she is not pleased that she is seeing an outdated report on the man's medical status. The defendant ends up disappearing and Judge Cymberline finds out what Casi said. She tells him he could have ended his career by giving the man the advice he did.Casi and Dane have one scene where they are fighting martial arts style and also talking about Casi's situation.Lea has several meetings with Craig, who wants to pay her a lot of money because if he gets the drugs, he will able to get millions for them. At their second meeting, he brings a very large man and forces her into a 1970 LTD, driving her to a location where someone's body is in a freezer.Five days before the collapse, Lea has another meeting with Casi at a restaurant and explains her situation. She is tired of a job that she doesn't like but her past means that she can't do any better--legally. Casi feels pretty much the same way.Casi's boss tells him he will get six months' suspension if he is lucky and disbarred if he is not. The room appears to get smaller and Casi is floating. At night, Casi and Dane are dressed up in a bar and discussing how they can benefit from the car being auctioned.Four days before the collapse, Casi has the day off and is not dressed up. He gets a cell phone call from Winston saying Casi is now responsible for Lea and if she messes up, it is his fault. Winston says she is no longer working for the cops. Casi happens to run into Lea and they both end up on the subway when the power goes out. After dark, they go to her apartment and kiss, finally ending up in bed. While there, Casi tells Lea about his abusive mother who was deported to Colombia.Casi leaves and Craig literally bumps into him, taking his wallet. Then Craig, with his goon beside them, threatens Casi if he interferes with what they are trying to do.When the power comes back on, both of Casi's defendants from earlier are shown screaming in separate jail cells.On the day of the collapse, Casi and Dane have a plan. Lea will help them. Casi brings a sword that has been a decoration in this apartment, and Dane brings tear gas. Dane rents a car and gets Lea to retrieve it for him, but the process is more complicated than usual, giving Casi the opportunity to sneak in before the auction and switch tracking devices. At the auction, Craig bids on the Navigator but is outbid by a man with an accent who is actually involved with the drugs, and the process becomes more difficult.Nevertheless, Detectives Winston and Coburn are able to pull over and arrest the man who outbid Craig. Lea, Craig and the goon take a separate car, and Casi and Dane go to a building where numerous men who appear to be Hasidic Jews are doing something that appears illegal. Casi and Dane are also dressed as Hasidic Jews. The men with Jewish clothes and beards pay for the drugs and then Dane sets off the tear gas. He and Casi steal the money, while the cops end up getting the drugs.But Craig won't let Lea go, and as he is beating her up, Dane and Casi come in and save the day.The audience sees what is essentially a TV from the early days being turned off.Casi, Dane and Lea are standing next to the water. Each one has part of the money, and Dane and Lea leave in separate cars. Casi throws his sword into the water.Casi appears before Judge Cymberline intending to sue because of the way cops treated his client. He has a law firm now, though he is the only lawyer. And while the judge requires bail for the client, somehow that is not a problem.