Mort Rainey (Johnny Depp) is a famous writer who is encountering some marital issues and then decides to move away from the city to live in the country. There he meets a man named John Shooter (John Tuturro) who accuses him of copying a story from him. Rainey claims he was the first one to write the story but Shooter gets more and more insistent and hostile. Rainey finally agrees to give him a concrete proof and show him the magazine where it was first published under his name.