In DOWN BY LAW an unemployed disc-jockey, a small-time pimp and a strong-willed Italian tourist meet in the confined space of a prison cell. Avoiding a specific time period, the story is set, abstractly, in New Orleans and the dense, surrounding swamps of Louisiana (places Jarmusch had never visited until after completing the screenplay). Jarmusch calls the style of the film «neo-beat-noir-comedy», with a story line that openly accepts conventions, and an atmosphere that is part nightmare and part fairy-tale («it's a sad and beautiful world»).