Synopsis

Helene Thatcher works at the State Welfare office in New Orleans, a world of forms, files, bad air-conditioning, and departmental regulations designed to keep the poor at bay.  The chaos and despair in the lives of the clients Helene strives to assist are mirrored in her own life on the trendier side of town.  Her lovers are given to casual violence and drugs, a friend toys, seductively, with insanity.  Detached and ironic, Helene is a young heroine who is coping, just barely.