Some people never go crazy. What truly horrible lives they must lead.

Henry Chinaski (Mickey Rourke) is a talented writer of prolific prose; unfortunately, he's also a skid-row alcoholic with a violent temper. He picks fights nightly with Eddie (Frank Stallone), the bartender at the local watering hole, the Golden Horn, and lives in a seedy tenement, stealing food and trying to scrape together enough money for booze. Fellow alcoholic Willa Wilcox (Faye Dunaway) catches Henrys eye at the bar one afternoon and although she has a reputation for being unstable, the two embark on a relationship with each other and the bottle.

Based on a semiautobiographical short story by poet and screenwriter Charles Bukowski and directed by Barbet Schroeder, Barfly offers insight into the world of the alcoholic, where all that matters is the next drink.