In the film's opening we meet two shadowy figures — one a deranged bomber, the other his time-traveling pursuer. In a violent confrontation, the time cop's body is mutilated by flames, and when he's returned to his own time, surgeons warn him that his face will never be the same. With that, we meet Ethan Hawke's character, who we will call The Bartender. Because after he heals, we meet him next tending bar in 1970s New York, where he has time traveled in search of the notorious Fizzle Bomber. There he meets a young writer of women's confessional stories, who we will call by their pen name, The Unmarried Mother.
The Unmarried Mother tells The Bartender their life story, beginning with their birth as Jane, left as a baby on the steps of an orphanage. A brilliant mind, Jane was always an outcast, enduring hardships all throughout youth. As an adult, Jane was recruited by a government stooge named Robertson to join an elite space program. But after being disqualified, Jane falls in love with a mysterious man who vanishes, leaving Jane pregnant with their child.
After giving birth, doctors made the discovery that Jane was actually intersex, and forced a gender reassignment surgery without consent. Jane now lives as The Unmarried Mother we met in the bar. But to make matters worse, the baby was abducted shortly after birth, and Jane blames their mysterious former lover for destroying their life.
