Giles De'Ath (Sir John Hurt) is a widower who doesn't like anything modern. He goes to movies and falls in love with movie star Ronnie Bostock (Jason Priestly). He then investigates everything about the movie and Ronnie. After that, he travels to Long Island City, where Ronnie lives, and meets him, pretending that Ronnie is a great actor, and that's why Giles admires him.

Giles De'Ath (Sir John Hurt), a widower, stuffy British author, gets locked out of his house one day and opts to see an E.M. Forster adaptation at a local cinema to pass the time. He mistakenly goes into the wrong theater, and as he is about to leave the puerile American movie, notices a young actor who immediately strikes his fancy. From there, we go on a journey with Giles as his obsession with the mediocre young actor goes from slight interest to a real obsession. This evolution ultimately brings him to Chesterton, Long Island, home of the actor. His miraculous encounter with the lad in some ways pushes the reserved Brit's emotional threshold over the top.—Irv