Quentin Tarantino's first novel is a story of desire and redemption among the stars of Hollywood: while everything is changing, the power of the imagination appears like a siren that is difficult to resist. Rick Dalton is an actor with a brilliant career in black and white cinema behind him, but in Hollywood in the 60s you age very quickly and now Dalton has to fight for a role in a commercial TV series or in a film in Italy with Virna Lisi or Gina Lollobrigida. Rick's sidekick is Cliff Booth, a war veteran with an eventful life who acts as his stunt double in the films, and as his confidant and chauffeur in private. Rick and Cliff's life in Cielo Drive is marked by parties at the house of Roman Polanski, the director of the moment, by the rivalry with Steve McQueen and Bruce Lee, and by the obsessive search for an important role to revive a career in decline. While a charismatic young man, angry at Hollywood for having shattered his artistic dreams, plans his violent revenge in a hippy community outside the city, Rick is distracted by the actress who stars with him in the TV series: a young Lolita who brings him back to the magic of cinema.