Did you know that scrap metal is America’s 4th largest export? Well, Hollis Wallace does, and he makes his quiet living trolling the back alleys of Seattle looking for cast-off copper, aluminum and other valuable metals. Hollis uses all the tricks of the metal scrapping trade to earn his living and navigate through a fascinating and rowdy world that few pay any attention to. Hollis’s only friend is his ailing mother, and his only drive in life is to collect enough scrap to take care of her. But his routine and isolation are disrupted when he has a strange encounter with teenage runaway Swan in the basement of an unhinged neighbor. They end up forming a scrapping partnership that almost borders on a friendship, before the forces in their lives threaten to destroy their new bond completely.
