The owner of a liquor store in lower Manhattan finds a case of cheap wine ("Tenafly Viper") in his basement. It's over sixty years old and has gone bad, but he decides to sell it to the local hobos anyway. Unfortunately, anyone who drinks this Viper melts away in a hideous fashion. At the same time, an overzealous cop is trying to get to the bottom of all the deaths. The movie is littered with darkly comedic deaths and injuries. It also contains the notorious 'severed privates' scene where a group of homeless people play catch with the severed genital of one of their number, as he futilely attempts to recover it.