Joe Buck, a young, slightly dim-witted Texan who is working as a dishwasher, decides to quit his job and heads to New York City to become a male prostitution. Initially unsuccessful, he manages to bed a middle-aged New York woman in her posh apartment, but the encounter ends badly and he despairs that he won't be able to make ends meet, until he joins forces with a tubercular con man named Ratso who changes his life.