A New York city bike messenger and photographer, in the 1970's, is working on a photo essay of a boy who lives in his building, Fernando Madrid, who's always playing hooky. When the photographer suddenly wins a film grant, the project turns into a film called "Hooky" and all the kids in the neighborhood want to join in and do. But the Hells Angels, who live across the street, begin a kind of turf war over the empty lot where much of the filming is going on. They take over and begin using the lot for working on motorcycles. One day soon after, Fernando and his brother find the tranvestite, who lived in the apartment across the hall, murdered and castrated! A week later, at 3 in the morning, the building is set on fire. The filmmaker escapes with his life, but many photos and much of the film is destroyed. He leaves town and the project is dropped. But, years later, using new digital methods, all the material still saved from that time is restored and the story of the lost film is told, using hindsight, ending with a resurrection of the original "Hooky" film.