A young artist living in New York, tries to make a living sketching passers-by on the street. He survives on his meager means and has found refuge in an abandoned building. One night, on the corner of a back alley, he finds a little girl whose father has just been murdered. While struggling to take care of her, he meets a young rich woman who immediately falls in love with this awkward couple. Twenty years before The Artist, Sidewalk Stories portrays the friendship of a tramp and a child, in a moving and funny homage to Chaplin's The Kid. Both witty and tender, Charles Lane's gorgeous black and white comedy pays tribute to the silent film era, as well as capturing the life of homeless New Yorkers.