In 1913, young Dmitri Pulski works for his father's ice cream company in the Sierra Nevadas when he journeys south to investigate an order for ten tons of ice by something called the Rocky Mountain Moving Picture Association. Almost immediately, Dmitri, an aspiring writer finds himself writing movie scenarios. But things get skewed when The Rocky is threatened with foreclosure-they're grinding out their movies just outside of each of the monopolistic Eastern Trust, which claims exclusive right to make moving pictures under Thomas Edison's patent.