A young woman moves into a tiny room in the rundown Morningside Heights. The year is 1979, and S.H. comes straight from the American countryside; hence her nickname: "Minnesota." The wild New York beckons, and she, who wants to be a writer, revels in the dirt as much as in the glamour, in the turbulent life as much as in solitude. She eagerly absorbs everything new. This includes, through the paper-thin walls to the neighboring apartment, the often quirky monologues and sung mantras of her neighbor: Lucy Brite, as it reads on the doorbell. But over time, she wishes she hadn’t listened so closely. Lucy's songs become increasingly urgent, more plaintive. There are mentions of abuse, captivity, infant death, even murder. Gradually, the neighbor becomes an ever more horrifying obsession. Until one night, a dramatic event occurs in Minnesota's apartment.