Jakob Kinsky believes that the noir film that will put him on the map is just waiting to be filmed in the decaying New England town of Quinsigamond. While searching for the "elemental image, " he meets a photographer with a mystery of her own to solve. Their respective quests entangle them with evangelists, feminists, erotic brokers, a missing 10-year-old, and a porn theater known as Herzog's Erotic Palace.