Down on her luck and saddled with debt, Emily gets involved in a credit card scam that pulls her into the criminal underworld of Los Angeles, ultimately leading to deadly consequences.
Emily (Aubrey Plaza) is saddled with student debt and locked out of the job market due to a minor criminal record. Desperate for income, she takes a shady gig as a "dummy shopper," buying goods with stolen credit cards supplied by a handsome and charismatic middleman named Youcef (Theo Rossi). Faced with a series of dead-end job interviews, Emily soon finds herself seduced by the quick cash and illicit thrills of black-market capitalism, and increasingly interested in her mentor Youcef. Together, they hatch a plan to bring their business to the next level in Los Angeles.
Emily Benetto (Aubrey Plaza) lives in Los Angeles and is deeply in debt. She struggles to pay off her student loans (amounting to $70,000), and a felony conviction for aggravated assault prevents her from obtaining a well-paying job. She delivers food as an independent contractor for a catering company.Emily is best friends with Liz, who has a successful job in print advertising. Liz's job takes her all over the world for exotic photo shoots, all on the company's expense. Liz promises to get Emily an assistant job at her agency. Liz promises to vouch for her, so that her boss doesn't perform a background check on Emily.
A co-worker Javier Santos (Bernardo Badillo) connects Emily to a "dummy shopper" service that promises to make her $200 in one hour. The service is revealed to be a credit card fraud ring. Emily meets Youcef (Theo Rossi), one of its organizers, who instructs her to purchase a flat-screen TV using a fake card and fake ID (to match the information on the card). The gang prints their own credit cards and the information on the cards is also stolen. The hard part is that the buyer doesn't know if the card will work or not (or if it has been reported stolen or blocked).
The next day, Emily is sent to purchase a car with a promised payment of $2000 if she pulls it off. The dealer is suspicious that Emily wants to purchase a car without a test drive. For a purchase of this size, the bank calls the vendor to confirm, but that takes 8 minutes. After running the card, Emily has 8 minutes to get out, else the dealer finds out that the card is fake. The dealer discovers the scam, leading to a physical altercation and Emily is injured before she escapes with the car.
As Youcef tends to her wounds, they discuss their aspirations. Emily, an aspiring artist, wishes to visit South America, while Youcef plans to purchase a rental property. Emily asks for a bigger role in his operation, and Youcef teaches her how to make fake credit cards.He gives her a taser for protection and instructs her not to sell stolen goods at her home or scam the same store twice a week. When Youcef's partner and cousin Khalil (Jonathan Avigdori) discovers them together, Youcef denies working with Emily.A buyer for a TV tries to stiff Emily by promising to pay $600, but then only agreeing to pay $300 when they meet. The buyer, named Michael, threatens Emily that he can just take the TV away for free. Emily locks herself in the car, till Michael agrees to pay $600. Emily does more business with Michael and sells many more items to him.While Emily dog sits for her childhood friend Liz, a buyer named Chip comes by to her apartment to pick up some merchandise and robs her earnings (between $10,000-15,000), taking the dog as well. She tasers the buyer and reclaims both.
Emily invites Youcef to a party at Liz's place, which sparks a romance between them. Youcef even invites Emily to meet his family.When there is an opening at Liz's (Megalyn Echikunwoke) advertising agency, she gets Emily an interview with her boss Alice (Gina Gershon). However, at the interview, Emily discovers the "job" is merely an unpaid internship. When Emily objects, Alice insults her and calls her spoiled.
At a dinner with Youcef's family, Khalil reveals that Emily has been caught hitting the same store twice within a week, prompting the store to post security footage of her online. This leads to a falling-out between Youcef and Khalil, who cuts him out of the fraud ring and refuses to pay him for his past work dating back to the last 5 months.Youcef needed the money for a down-payment on an apartment that he was buying for his mother.Youcef decides to rob the fraud ring itself. He and Emily arrive at the ring's storage unit to find that Khalil has already taken everything and emptied their shared business bank account. Youcef starts blaming Emily for hitting the same store twice in the same week for this debacle. Emily says that Khalil was going to do this to Youcef sooner or later.Emily then convinces Youcef to ambush Khalil at his safe-house in Santa Clarita, with his Armenian crew. Emily says that Khalil is not expecting Youcef to fight back and that's an opportunity for them to take advantage of.
As they arrive at the safe-house, Youcef asks Emily what her assault conviction was for. She replies that she had been dating a guy she frequently fought with, and then implies that one day she snapped and attacked him. She then confesses that her mistake was that she "didn't go far enough", that she "didn't really scare him", because if she had, "he would've never called the police".
They enter the safe-house, where Khalil severely injures Youcef before Emily can subdue him. Khalil starts strangling Emily, but she brings out a pocketknife from her trousers and stabs Khalil multiple times. Khalil reveals that the cash is hidden inside the fridge.Taking the ring's money and assisting Youcef to his car, she realizes they have lost his car keys and cannot drive away. As police and ambulance sirens draw closer, Emily abandons Youcef in his car and flees with the money.
The police raid Emily's apartment and find it empty. Now living in South America, she returns to making art. She also establishes a credit card fraud ring of her own, recruiting dummy shoppers with the promise of making $200 in one hour.
