Stephen Elliott (James Franco) is enjoying a moment of fame and notoriety after publishing a celebrated memoir charting his difficult childhood at the mercy of a brutalising father (Ed Harris). Going from busy book signings to sold-out talk-sessions he is riding the crest of a wave that has hitherto been so uncharacteristic of his life's journey so far. But what goes up must come down and when his estranged father resurfaces in his life, claiming that Stephen fabricated much of the dark childhood that that fuelled his best-selling book, it comes down with a crash. Adrift in the precarious grey area of memory, prescription medication and an onset of serious writers-block Stephen is guided by a new romance with the beautiful and enigmatic Lana (Amber Heard) and the chance to write about an infamous murder trial that reminds him more than a little of his own story.