The story follows Stein, a fiction writer in Hollywood trying to adapt his own detective novel into a screenplay. As the action begins, we meet Stone, Stein’s detective, in the hospital with a bullet wound. As Stone relates the story of his injury, Stein begins to rewrite his story. As he rewrites, the “movie” is rewound and the actors move and speak backwords. As Stein buries himself in the fantasy world of his detective story, however, his personal life begins to fall apart. When his wife leaves him, he must make some decisions about what is really important in his life.