Paul, a 24-year-old university student, has the fight of his life when his ex-girlfriend, Becky, steals the subject of his thesis: two ficus trees. Becky decides to kill the plants as a symbol of their dying relationship. Things become desperate when Paul realizes that his degenerating health, evidenced by a pernicious rash, is linked to that of the dying tree. As Paul's desperation to regain his trees (and his health) grows, he must resort to any means possible to get the plants from the grasp of Becky and her recently acquired new-age boyfriend.
