Adam Driver stars as Paterson, who coincidentally shares the same name as his town in New Jersey. We follow Paterson over the course of a week in his life, his routines, his conversations with his aspiring baker/singer girlfriend Laura, the conversations he eavesdrops on with the passengers in the city bus he drives, and his interactions with the inhabitants of the local bar he goes to when he takes his English Bulldog Marvin for a walk at night. We also get to follow along as he writes poems every day in his writing notebook, inspired by the writings of famed Paterson poet William Carlos Williams.