The narrative follows Spike Flecker, a young, struggling painter wandering rain-soaked boulevards and wrestling with poverty, frustration, and a bungled attempt at self-destruction. A striking, dark-eyed woman who claims to be a witch intrudes into his life and sets in motion events that mix everyday bohemian hardship with uncanny occurrences. The story moves through episodic scenes that balance material pressures — money, reputation, work — against imaginative and supernatural possibilities, probing how artistic ambition, loneliness, and the hope for transformation shape choices and consequences.