David (Troy Ruptash) is a successful painter who has lost his inspiration. To find stimulation he takes a job as a waiter. His friend and roommate Shannon (Thom Allison), a pre-op male-to-female transsexual, stumbles across the Main St. Diner, owned by hunky Matt (Vince Corazza) and Violet (Lynda Boyd), who are looking for a waiter. David gets hired and quickly becomes close with the couple, although they don't know of his career in the art community and are surprised to learn that he's gay. David's friend Kryla (Cherilee Taylor), a columnist for the Winnipeg Tribune is an aging, bitter, fag-hag journalist. She tracks David down at the diner against his wishes. David demands that she write up the diner in her column, which she does, and the diner's business picks up considerably.
Shannon, whose sex reassignment surgery has been repeatedly delayed because of her HIV-positive status, becomes ill. David has a painting installed and Kryla gets his photo in the paper. Matt and Violet see the photo and realize that he's famous. David and Matt start hanging out. Matt, who had tried his hand at drawing comic books, pesters David to show him his paintings but David resists. Matt confesses that he had once fallen in love with another man in college although he hadn't acted on it. David, finding himself drawn to Matt, paints him nude, although Matt doesn't pose. He tells Matt that there's a painting he needs to see. Matt comes to David's place and sees the painting. He becomes aroused and the two begin an affair. Sparks fly, but the portraits he paints of Matt may break the couple apart.
David paints two more portraits of Matt, who still doesn't actually pose. Kryla and Shannon hail them as his best work and ask him to exhibit them, but Matt is nervous about how Violet would react and makes him promise not to. They love each other, but keep the relationship secret because of the disapproval Kryla expresses to David at the idea of him sleeping with a married man.
Kryla discovers the affair when she walks in on David and Matt having sex. Matt tells David that he lied about loving him and escapes. In the aftermath of the affair, Shannon convinces David to break his promise and exhibit the paintings. He does so under the title "Straightman". When Matt learns of the show he confronts David, first threatening to destroy the paintings and then offering himself again sexually. David contemptuously dismisses him. Matt tells Violet about the paintings and about the affair and admits that he is in love with David. She demands a divorce.
Shannon has grown progressively more ill, and decides to take her life. As she dies, David runs into Kryla at a bar and they have a bitter fight. Violet attends the opening but merely tells David that the paintings are very good. As she leaves, Matt arrives and she refuses to give him another chance. After the opening Matt again approaches David who also rebuffs him. At the film's end, Matt has left town. David has also decided to leave, but he and Kryla reconcile.
Sex and emotions fill the screen in this film set against the backdrop of several events in the fictional life of "Superman" in the early 1990s, including his revealing his secret identity and marriage to Lois Lane and "The Death of Superman" storyline. The events in the comics parallel events in the lives of the characters. Filled with very much gay and straight sex, "Leaving Metropolis" pays as much attention to the character's minds as to their flesh. Some of the script's metaphors are a little clumsy, but the psychology is convincing. It is stereotypical in that the gay character has a roommate who is HIV-positive and a transexual, and the character he falls in love with is a straight man who is confused, but really wants to stay with the wife. However, it is a story of infatuation on both sides of the relationship and it is entertaining to watch the story unfold. Filmed in Winnipeg, Canada, the screenplay was adapted by Brad Fraser from his play "Poor Super Man". Dennis Burke composed the music, and Brad Fraser directed.
