
While having sex with Billie in her penthouse bedroom, Shane mentions that he wants to be a bartender since one of the newer ones, Rhett, quit to become a model (presumably Billie had sex with Rhett too since she's upset about his sudden departure), and Billie asks him if he wants her to recommend him to Steve, which she later does offscreen. Like Greg, Shane also wants to become a bartender, and after working at 54 for only a week, he gets that chance thanks in part to 54 regular Billie Auster, a decadent, sophisticated, cougar-like socialite/businesswoman who has a one-night stand with Shane while high on cocaine and marijuana (she passes out mid-intercourse as a result, but Shane continues to have sex with her anyway), and who Anita hopes can help jump-start her singing career since she knows everybody in the music business. Shane even has sex in the club's infamous balcony with 54 regular Patti, a Southern starlet/model, on his first night as a busboy. Shane eventually moves out of his family's house after arguing with his father over his new job and moves in with Greg and Anita in New York, and they become a surrogate family to him. He quickly becomes friends with fellow busboy Greg Randazzo and his coat-check girl wife Anita, who, like Shane, aspire for bigger and better things: Greg wants to become one of the club's bartenders, since they make more money and have more "celebrity" status and Anita wants to become a famous singer. Shane has such a good time at 54 that he makes plans to go back, much to his father's disapproval, so the next night, Shane borrows his father's car without permission and heads back to 54, where Steve hires him as a busboy. Once inside, Shane is exposed to the glamorous, hedonistic playground that is 54, with plenty of drugs, alcohol, disco music, and sex to go around. However, upon arrival, gay club owner Steve Rubell picks him to go inside (only after he takes off his shirt), and not his friends. An Irish-American kid tired of his working-class existence, Shane longs for a more exciting life across the river in New York, so he cuts his hair, dresses up, and and talks his two friends into going to Studio 54 one night. Set in late 1979, Shane O'Shea (who narrates the story in flashback) is a 19-year-old gas jockey from Jersey City, New Jersey who lives with his widowed, conservative father Harlan and two younger sisters, Grace and Kelly, both of whom were named after Princess Grace by their late mother, who died when Shane was 12.The synopsis below may give away important plot points.
