Struggling filmmaker Marvin Landisman (Robert Wuhl) gets a surprise phone call from Jack Roth (Martin Landau), an ex-Hollywood executive who wants to turn one of Marvin's screenplays into a movie. Marvin thinks his life's ambition is about to become a reality, until he meets the film's financial backers (Robert De Niro, Danny Aiello, Eli Wallach). Each investor has a young girlfriend whom they force Marvin to offer a role to, and then they also re-write the script until it's unrecognizable.