High-school student Richard (Zac Efron) dreams of a life on the stage, so he takes trips into Manhattan and, on one of these occasions -- thanks to his drum- and ukulele-playing skills -- manages to BS his way into the cast of Orson Welles' (Christian McKay) newest production. The impressionable kid immediately gets swept up into this exciting new world. As he learns from his brilliant, mercurial new mentor, Richard attempts to win the affections of Sonja Jones (Claire Danes), an ambitious secretary at the theater who has designs on meeting David O. Selznick. Young Richard also befriends fellow actors Joseph Cotten (James Tupper) and Norman Lloyd (Leo Bill), leading to a wager among the trio of men over who will be the first of the three to seduce the heretofore unattainable Sonja. What Richard doesn't expect is that he will have to compete not with them, but with Welles himself for her attention.