In a dying Florida town, a trivial clique lives in oblivion as natural disaster and lies consume them. Vanessa is a nihilistic hairdresser, coping with her parents’ freak death. She dates Alex, a sell-out painter, desperate for affection and relevance. Alex fucks Julie, a pill popper who can’t dodge the past. After a bizarre fire ruins an art gallery, they plan an extravagant party on a wasted barrier island in the Gulf of Mexico. As the party approaches, Vanessa’s friends converge, hot for distraction from dysfunctional affairs, a hopeless economy, and the searing sun—until a rumor unravels everyone’s secrets. Quick and surreal, Paper Dolls is a lush exhortation against cultivated apathy and delusion.