Sol just wants to survive his last year of high school and escape his suffocating, homophobic small town. But when he loses his spot on the baseball team and clashes with his father, escape slips further out of reach. Commiserating with his equally unpopular best friend Meg over a ceremonial glass of absinthe, Sol finds refuge in an unlikely place: a forgotten 1901 novel about a tragic gay romance in the shadow of the Moulin Rouge.
 
Soon, Sol begins dreaming he is Niki, a cabaret dancer in the novel, caught between love and the art that defines him. As those dreams bleed into his waking life, Sol begins to fear they may be asking more of him than escape. To save both Niki and himself, Sol must confront what he is willing to sacrifice for the life and the love he wants.