Night Lights depicts a secretive rendezvous in an urban parking lot between a male ex-convict who is generously tattooed and a female university professor whose body is mysteriously scarred. Having connected through an Internet site, they appear to be meeting for anonymous sex. They are polite and respectful to each other, but each reveals a dangerous unpredictability. The woman is mentally wounded and emotionally numb from having been raped; she cannot break through to her feelings, even by doing herself bodily harm. The man seeks sex as a substitute for the power he felt by holding lives at bay during an armed robbery. Both have learned that the only real excitement in life is when violence is facing you. Although they achieve a keen understanding of each other, tragedy intervenes in an unexpected way.