It s the 1920s and the na‹ve and starry-eyed Violet Atherton is waiting tables in a Hollywood diner, looking for her big break in the movies. When the famed movie director Lionel Rains comes in for coffee and invites the eager Violet to a screen test in his Beverly Hills home, she jumps at the chance. The scene begins on a movie set in Rains living room, during a cocktail party of his well-heeled friends. Stepping before the camera, the timid Violet waits for her lover to appear.