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It's the week before Christmas and Hollywood's fast-talking fixer for the felonious - Junior Bender - is up to his ears in mall Santas, Russian mobsters, desperate holiday shoppers, and, 'tis the season: murder. It's Christmas in Tinsel Town. Well, it's the week leading up to Christmas, and Junior Bender, divorced father of one and burglar extraordinaire, finds himself at the Edgerton Mall. He's not just among the last-minute shoppers (though he is that too) ; he's also on a job. The Edgerton Mall isn't exactly full of holiday cheer, despite its two Santas, canned Christmas music, chintzy bows, and metallic garland. The mall is a fossil of an industry in decline; many of its stores are closed, and to make matters worse, there is a rampant shoplifting problem. Thus Junior Bender, the unwilling fixer for LA's various underworld bosses, is on the scene. The murderous Russian gangster who owns the mall hires Junior to look into the shoplifting problem for him. But Junior's surveillance operation doesn't go well: within two days, two people are dead. It's obvious that shoplifting is the least of the mall's problems. Meanwhile, Junior must confront his own deep-seated melancholy at the very notion of Christmas - both present and past.