Doug Blankenship,a ne'er-do-well folk artist has lived with his mother for the past twenty years since leaving the Army and a girlfriend behind in Germany. Through a sudden stroke of luck Doug meets a German film producer who is willing to bring him and his spiral notebook full of screenplays to Berlin. The film they eventually make together is called "Love Songs For Scumbags,"about a Neo-Nazi and his drug-addled wife attempting to regain custody of their child from Social Services. Scenes from this film "within the film" run concurrently with Doug's eventual slip into homelessness and mental illness. Meanwhile Doug's long-lost now 20 year old daughter comes to Berlin in search of him.