After Mickey is released from a mental hospital, where his stories
are perceived as lies, he goes back to Los Angeles in search of a woman
named Eve. When he arrives at the bar that bears her name, he is
immediately attracted to the new owner, a former call girl also named Eve. She tells Mickey she bought the bar after the old owner killed herself, "over some guy". The bar is a popular spot for patrons looking for one night stands as well as hookers looking for potential johns.
Although Eve is also attracted to Mickey, she refuses to commit to any
one man, confessing to French radio talk show host Dr. Nancy Love that
she ruined too many marriages to have one of her own. That night Eve
rebuffs Mickey's advances and sleeps with the bartender who has a crush
on her, while avoiding the wealthy married man she's been having an
affair with.
That same night, Dr. Nancy Love answered Eve's ad for a roommate
to share her house, and moves in the next day. Nancy conceals her
identity and begins to observe Eve's romantic entanglements even as she
counsels Eve through her radio show. When Eve's married lover, Zack,
calls looking for her, Nancy asks penetrating questions and begins
dispensing relationship advice, despite the fact that she herself has
been unable to maintain a successful relationship. Zack in turn resumes
his pursuit of Eve, although his wife, Pearl, has begun to haunt Eve's
bar hoping to catch him with her, unbeknownst to Eve.
Mickey comes back to the bar the next night when he is unable to pay for a bus ticket home to Las Vegas.
Pearl asks his opinion of a poem, and when she argues his
interpretation Mickey reveals that he taught poetry, as well as being a
photographer and a former soldier. Eve is intrigued but cool, and Mickey
leaves when Pearl offers to get him into a hot card game where he can
get the money for a ticket home. When she drops him off, Mickey kisses
Pearl and asks her to marry him, but she just laughs, calling him crazy,
although she invites him to drop by her place, and gives him Eve's
address and phone number. At the game Mickey wins big, earning the ire
of Pearl's husband Zack. Zack warns Mickey not to come back, before he
goes to meet Eve, but Eve in turn sends Zack away, telling him their
affair is over.
Mickey goes to Pearl's apartment to crash, and when he wakes up
begins taking pictures as she sleeps. She is just waking up when Zack
walks in, still stinging from Eve's rejection, and he attacks Mickey,
pulling a gun and taking back the money he lost. He slaps Pearl after
Mickey runs out, assuming they slept together. It is implied that Zack
frequently abuses Pearl emotionally and physically and perhaps she was
hoping to catch her husband with Eve so she could finally have an excuse
to divorce him.
Mickey calls Eve's house, and when Nancy answers pleads to come
over and crash, hanging up before he realizes who she is. When he
arrives Nancy tells him Eve isn't home, and while he is confused he
welcomes the chance to bathe and eat when she allows him in. She snoops
in his suitcase while he bathes, finding memorabilia showing the truth
of his stories and travels. As he eats they talk about Eve, but sensing
her loneliness he sweeps her into bed, then asks her to marry him and go
with him to Las Vegas. Nancy laughs, but tells him she doesn't believe
he's crazy. Then she tells him to leave before she goes to work.
Eve calls into Nancy's radio show from the office above her bar,
torn between her attraction for Mickey and her fear of making another
mistake. Nancy's post-coital euphoria overcomes her normal intellectual
approach, and she encourages Eve to give in to, rather than resist, her
feelings. So when Mickey comes looking for Eve that night, she is almost
ready to give in when Zack appears and assaults Mickey again. Eve takes
off while they are fighting, and when she gets home is suddenly
confronted by Nancy, who tells her everything. Eve is devastated when
Nancy proposes that they "share" Mickey's affection, and she tells Nancy
she can have him, before rushing out.
Mickey goes back to Eve's house to recover his suitcase, and Zack
finds him there and assaults him again. But Mickey prevails, recovering
the money and leaving with his suitcase. He tries to cadge a ride to
the bus station but spies Eve on the roof of the bar, and races up to
see her. She pulls a gun and threatens to kill herself until he does the
same; then she breaks down and they embrace.
Soon they are on a bus, on their way to Las Vegas, and when a
fellow passenger asks if they are gambling, Eve says you could call it
that - they've just been married.
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