Monroe Stahr is the young production chief and one of the most creative executives at a major studio during the Golden Age of Hollywood. His talent and ambition put him in the crosshairs of Pat Brady, an older producer who craves public recognition as much as success. From a distance, Stahr oversees the film’s progress while watching Didi, an older actress, clash with director Red Ridingwood. As Stahr critiques the dailies, an earthquake strikes, rupturing a water pipe inside the water tower and flooding a nearby set. In the chaos, he notices two women clinging to the head of a statue; one of them is Kathleen Moore. He returns to his mansion and asks his secretary to identify the women.
Back at the studio, Stahr is greeted by Cecilia Brady, Pat’s college-aged daughter. After Cecilia leaves, Stahr confides his support for Rodriguez, an actor who is in the midst of separating from his wife. Later that day, he attends a studio luncheon where the board discusses a potential writers’ strike and the studio’s profitability. He plans to meet Kathleen later that night, and he consoles Didi in her dressing room.
As Stahr leaves the studio, he meets Edna, an aspiring actress, though she isn’t the girl he hoped to see. Edna asks to be dropped off at her Westwood home, where Stahr meets Kathleen, an Anglo-Irish aspiring actress. The next day, Stahr consults with George Boxley, an English novelist under contract to the studio who believes movies are beneath him. To inspire Boxley, Stahr tells an impromptu story in which a woman enters a room and empties her purse onto a table. Boxley asks about the unresolved element—the nickel spilled from the purse—and Stahr explains that the nickel is for the movies.
At a screenwriters’ dinner party, Stahr unexpectedly sees Kathleen again and dances with her. Kathleen leaves, but they agree to see each other the following morning. They walk around the construction site of Stahr’s unfinished beachfront house, return to the beach that night, and, as they share intimate moments, Kathleen realizes she resembles Minna Davis, Stahr’s deceased wife. After he brings her home, he discovers that Kathleen has mailed a letter saying she is engaged to another man.
At the studio, Stahr confronts Boxley and has him escorted off the lot. Despite Kathleen’s note urging him not to see her, she and Stahr return to the beach, where she declares her intention to marry an engineer who saved her life. Back in the projection room, Stahr is unhappy with a newly filmed scene between Didi and Rodriguez and rewrites it after learning that Boxley has died by suicide. Didi’s new film premieres, and Stahr receives a telegram from Kathleen stating that she is marrying at noon.
Meanwhile, Cecilia arranges a meeting between Stahr and Brimmer, a communist labor organizer hoping to unionize Hollywood screenwriters. Stahr disagrees with the idea of unionization, arguing that they can share money but not power. During dinner, Stahr drinks heavily as Brimmer and Cecilia flirt. They return to Cecilia’s place, where Stahr and Brimmer engage in a tense, revealing game of ping-pong. Brimmer knocks Stahr out, and Cecilia cares for him through the night.
The next morning, Brady informs Stahr that an emergency meeting has been called. Stahr arrives with a bruised eye and learns from the New York office that he has been relieved from further labor negotiations and should take a vacation. He returns to his office, but memories flood back of Kathleen as the girl in the story he told Boxley, with the nickel slipping from her purse. As Brady and the studio executives drive away, Stahr walks alone into a dark, silent sound stage, a man left to contend with the weight of his ambitions and the ghosts of a world that is changing around him.
