On the morning after the 2003 Academy Awards, Max - an Oscar-winning writer/director whose fame has waned - and his lover, Elena, are in bed, still groggy from last nights red-carpet festivities. They are talking about movies, talking about love, talking about the just-begun war in Iraq. But their house full of guests demands attention. Gathered downstairs are: Maxs ex-wife the legendary Zoe Cunningham, a dazzling half-Jamaican movie star; their strong-willed daughter, Isabel; Maxs agent, Stoney, a too easy-going version of his now-departed agent father; Paul, Zoes new lover, an enigmatic healer; and a coterie of others. Over the next ten days they share their stories of Hollywood past and present, their fears provoked by the Iraq war; they watch films in Maxs luxury screening room; they gossip by the swimming pool and tussle in the many bedrooms, as the tension mounts and sparks fly