Still reeling from the painful breakup of his marriage to screen siren Rita Hayworth, iconic filmmaker Orson Welles (Danny Huston) makes his way to Rome, where he gets pulled into a tangled political plot involving murder and mysterious motives. A beautiful actress (Paz Vega) proves a tempting distraction. But if they want to stay alive, Welles and his young Italian driver (Diego Luna) need to stay focused.