The Smell of Smoke tells the story of Dottie, a woman in her 80s who struggles with increasing loneliness and frustration over being forgotten by the world around her. One day, she wanders into the East Village bar where she and her late husband had spent many night with their friends, years before. As Dottie reminisces, the dive bar time travels between the 1940’s when the world seemed to belong to herself and her husband, and the sparse desperation that the 1990s offers her. Jason, a neighborhood kid, who is hustling his way through tough circumstances, follows her into the bar. Charming and manipulative, he takes advantage of Dottie’s vulnerable state. Dottie is captivated by the male attention. What will we sacrifice to not be forgotten and alone?