When Tim, a college freshman from a poor family, meets Luis, a cocky rich boy in an American Literature class they bond in their obsession with Bret Easton Ellis's novel and the character of Patrick Bateman. Aware that Tim considers him as a Bateman-like role model, Luis asserts his power by alternately goading and grooming him into following his lead. In a misguided attempt to impress Luis, Tim starts not only to take on the outward look of success, but simultaneously begins to demonstrate pathologically violent behavior that extends to abusing his only friend from high school.