Russell, a lifeguard at a community pool, lives in council housing and grew up an orphan. He's out as a gay man to his close friends but isn't comfortable sharing details of his life with anyone, including his best mate, a straight man named Jamie who grew up with him in the same circumstances, in and out of foster homes. Glen, an aspiring artist, wears his queerness on his sleeve and rants about the larger heterosexual world's disgust with or disinterest in gay men's lives. Glen is insistent that he doesn't want a boyfriend; his fag hag, Jill, explains to Russell that Glen was hurt by an ex's serial cheating and dishonesty. In their first speaking scene together, Glen asks Russell to talk into a tape recorder about their sexual encounter the night before, explaining that it's for some vague art project he's working on. Later, Glen learns that Russell has been cataloging his own sexual encounters on his computer.
