The rags-to-riches-to-rags story of Max Britsky, a Jewish boy, who at the age of twelve assumes responsibility for a family of seven -- his widowed immigrant mother, and his six siblings. His ambitions and joy of life lead him into the world just being created by Edison, Eastman and Lumiere: the world of movies, although both the technology and the word 'movies' lay in the future, waiting for Max to give them life. What follows is the story of Hollywood, the glamour, the money, the cut-throat ambition and the sex.