The film depicts 24 hours in the lives of the employees at an independent record store in Delaware. The perpetually exasperated store manager Joe (Anthony LaPaglia) allows employee Lucas (Rory Cochrane) to close the store for the first time. While counting the day's receipts in Joe's office, Lucas discovers that Empire Records is about to be sold and converted into a branch of ''Music Town'', a large national chain. In an effort to keep the store independent, Lucas takes the day's cash receipts ($9,000) to a casino in Atlantic City to quadruple it and save the store. Though he doubles the money on his first roll, he loses it all on the second.