Volume One In Los Angeles, a young and lonesome drifter, Jon Kortina, encounters an eccentric
mortician named Harvey Lewis. Harvey takes in the homeless Jon, who is wearing a bloody T-shirt, and agrees to hire him as an assistant in his mortuary. The two become friends and hatch an underground enterprise selling the
gold fillings which Harvey has collected from the teeth of corpses over the years. Jon meets
bartender Traci Walton; they begin dating and Jon eventually moves in with her. Jon learns some mysterious details of Harvey's past (some involving "the
Black Dahlia"). Upset that Harvey is withholding his share from the dental scrap sales, Jon suspects he is being cheated—suspicions fueled by an overheard conversation of Harvey's with a man named Malmo. Assisted by Traci, Jon plots to trick Harvey into attending a non-existent
Rolling Stones concert, planning to leave him on the side of the road and drive away with both their shares of their profits. Harvey spots a hole in the stratagem and confronts Jon; in an ensuing struggle Harvey falls from a cliff into the ocean.
Volume Two Volume Two is framed by numerous cuts throughout two scenes of Jon in Harvey's captivity. These scenes reveal more about their backstories: that Harvey's lover was murdered, becoming the Black Dahlia, and that Jon's bloody shirt in the opening of
Volume One was the result of an attempt at
suicide by jumping. The two bicker and eventually come to terms with their perceived betrayals of each other. In the "present" scenes, Jon and Traci attempt to open Harvey's safe (which has the outward appearance of an
ATM); without the correct key, they take the entire safe with them and begin driving toward Colorado. After a close call with a police officer in Arizona over expired tags, Jon and Traci ditch their vehicle and call Traci's Uncle Rick for help. They travel to Rick's ranch house with the safe, which Jon claims contains his college transfer papers for
Colorado State University. Rick displays odd and intimidating behavior, such as exercising in front of them and forcing Jon to drink a
nightcap, and Jon has a nightmare about Rick and Harvey. In the morning, Rick reveals that he's unable to get around the safe's extra security mechanisms, and recommends hiring local locksmith Doc Seagar. Doc walks out to the ranch, but when he surmises that there's something potentially illegal going on he demands $25,000, which Rick refuses to provide. Doc calls his employee Vicente to bring
nitric acid to open the safe and holds Jon, Traci, and Rick at gunpoint while they wait. Vicente recognizes Traci as a figure from his past and becomes enraged, taking her inside to kill her with a knife. Before he can kill her, he and Doc are both shot and seemingly killed by an unseen figure. As Jon and Rick plot to dispose of Vicente and Doc's bodies and open the safe themselves, Jon discovers Harvey's car in Rick's garage. He confronts Rick and it is revealed that Rick and Traci are actually a romantic couple who have been scamming Jon; Rick had tailed Harvey and Jon the night Harvey fell from the cliff and stole Harvey's car after Jon fled. Rick leads Jon on a trail to murder him, but Harvey kills Rick and saves Jon, revealing that Harvey survived the fall in
Volume One. Jon and Harvey make up and return to Rick's house to confront Traci, with whom Jon breaks up, despite her pleas, and leaves alone. Harvey drives Jon back to Los Angeles to a home he has purchased for Jon, revealing his secrecy in
Volume One to be part of a surprise gift; Malmo was a real estate agent who sold him the house. He also informs Jon that he has enrolled him at a nearby college, and they happily enter the house. The film ends as a still-alive Vicente arrives outside Jon's new home with a thirst for vengeance. ==Cast==