An unnamed, starving young man wanders an urban landscape while chronicling the effects of extreme hunger on thought and conduct. Episodic episodes trace his attempts to secure work or money, his prideful refusals of help, furtive compromises, and growing mental instability as cravings provoke hallucination, self-deception, and spasms of generosity. The narrative privileges interior impression over linear plot, moving between darkly comic incidents and acute psychological insight to examine alienation, artistic longing, and the corrosive interplay of physical deprivation and moral dignity, concluding on an ambiguous note that leaves the narrator's immediate future uncertain.