The strangely assorted group include: Maggie, a young wife and mother, trying to reshape her life from the backwaters of divorce; Caro, a sophisticated young girl who knows 'the industry' from the boudoir out, but has never been forced to learn about herself; Dickie, a forlorn member of the thrid sex, beating against the walls of his loneliness; Stush, an enigmatic stranger, whose blunt and irresistible vitality catapults him to fame; Jere, a disenchanted writer who has given up the battle but inevitably drags to perdition everyone he touches. Set in Southern California, the motif the influence of the motion-picture industry on the lives of the people.