Part 1 of Last Exit to Brooklyn is subtitled “Another Day Another Dollar.” A group of violent young men spend their nights lurking in a Greek diner in New York City. They complain to the owner about the jukebox, mock the other customers, and play coin-throwing games on the street outside. They argue about cars while smoking cigarettes and wrestling. Returning to the diner, they argue with the owner, Alex, who tells them that they should get jobs. They chide and joke with Alex, who calls them names and jokes back.

One of the youths is named Freddy. At one point in the evening, a woman named Rosie enters the diner and sits beside Freddy. Rosie sometimes does sex work, and she and Freddy have slept together before. She tries to engage with him or asks him for money, but he rebukes or ignores her, telling her that she is “worse than a leech” (14). He hits her in the face, and the violence attracts the attention of three drunken soldiers passing by. A brawl breaks out between Freddy’s friends and the soldiers, ending with one soldier savagely beaten and the other two running back to their base. The police stop the fight, and Freddy insists that the soldiers made obscene remarks to his “wife,” Rosie.