辉煌一时的沉默的电影导演,无法使过渡到新的有声电影,住在好莱坞的家中near-hermit,制造廉价,无声性电影,和痛苦在他性无能的知识,和冷漠的计划拆除他家为高速公路。生产者和他的女友来,看看他在做(和供应海洛因的女演员她付款)。女朋友保持看他们拍摄,深深打动了他的方法。

　A once-great silent film director, unable to make the transition to the new talkies, lives as a near-hermit in his Hollywood home, making cheap, silent sex films, and suffering in the knowledge of his sexual impotence, and apathetic about the plans to demolish his home to make way for a motorway. His producer and his producer's girlfriend come by to see how he is doing (and to supply heroin to the actress as her payment). The girlfriend stays to watch them filming, and is deeply impressed by his methods. When the actress goes to the bathroom, and dies there of an overdose, the girlfriend takes her place in the film. Then the producer returns...