When maverick movie star Sean O'Toole is forced to leave the glamour of Hollywood to make a film about an Irish gangster, he's not best pleased - and even less so when he finds out he'll be joined by hapless local journalist Dan Starkey, who is writing his biography.

It's a job that plunges Dan into the murky underbelly of the movie business, and from the backstreets of Belfast to the fleshpots of Amsterdam and the glitz of the Cannes Film Festival. Along the way a smouldering romance threatens the frequently rocky balance of his marriage to Patricia while he battles his way through kidnap, extortion and murder, and all of it liberally sprinkled with Hollywood gold dust.