Danny Tate, a journalist and recovering alcoholic, is sent to Los Angeles for work that includes meeting Hervé Villechaize for an interview. After Tate abruptly ends their chat to chase another assignment with Gore Vidal, Villechaize chides him about his career, and their uneasy dynamic is set. Tate pays for their meal and heads back, but arrives late for his Vidal interview, only to have Vidal walk out.
That night, Hervé Villechaize phones again, insisting they finish the conversation. Tate agrees, partly to keep himself from slipping back into drinking. Villechaize arrives in a limo, and the two ride through the city as Villechaize unspools his past: from learning of his dwarfism and his parents’ conflicted feelings to his early life as a painter, and the turning point in New York after an assault that pushes him toward acting. He recounts the moment he forced his way into the office of Martin Rothstein to gain representation by the William Morris Agency, and then lands a breakthrough in a James Bond film, The Man with the Golden Gun, where applause greets him at the premiere and his mother beams with pride.
Despite that early triumph, Villechaize endures years of sporadic work until Rothstein helps him land a role on the TV hit Fantasy Island, reviving his popularity. He eventually marries Camille Hagen after she guest-stars on the show, and the couple shares a night out that pushes Villechaize into old habits and reckless behavior.
The pair visit a strip club, where Villechaize pushes Tate toward breaking his sobriety, prompting Tate to take a beer. They hop back into the limo for a stop at Pink’s Hot Dogs, and Villechaize takes the wheel—only to crash. The later hours bring a confrontation about Villechaize’s womanizing and his marriage to Hagen. The tension erupts when Villechaize confronts Tate with a knife, and Tate goads him to kill. Villechaize relents, and Tate unloads his own frustrations, insisting that Villechaize isn’t the sole architect of his troubles. Villechaize concedes and eventually returns Tate to his hotel, then leads him to the site of the Fantasy Island pilot where he confesses that he is, ultimately, the architect of his own misfortune.
Hagen divorces him and a restraining order follows, with Villechaize suspecting that his love was more compelled than real. While performing as Tattoo at a public event, he experiences a breakdown and lights his costume on fire, breaking down in tears with his girlfriend, Kathy Self.
Tate is dropped back at his hotel and later phones his ex-wife, Katie, to apologize and acknowledge that some things cannot be fixed between them. That night, he goes to meet Villechaize one final time before returning to England. Villechaize reveals that his mother was not among the fans at The Man with the Golden Gun premiere. The two share a quiet, final photograph and part on amicable terms.
As Tate compiles his interview, he learns that Villechaize took his own life shortly after their last meeting. When his editor urges him to trim the piece, Tate resigns and chooses instead to write a book titled My Dinner with Hervé, a personal keepsake born from a difficult but illuminating encounter.
