Todd Haynes' feature debut is structured around three interlocking vignettes. In the AIDS allegory "Horror," filmed in the style of 1950's science fiction B-movies, a scientist (Larry Maxwell) distills the human sex drive into liquid form; in "Hero," told in the documentary style of a tabloid-television report, the exploits of a seven-year-old boy who shoots his father and then flies away are recounted; and "Homo," based on the writings of Jean Genet, is an examination of the prison romance between two male prisoners.