Los Angeles, 1959. The aging filmmaker Curtis Melnitz is tormented by nightmares. He is in dire need of sleeping pills – but can only get them if he regularly visits the psychoanalyst. On the analyst’s couch, he reluctantly recounts the story of his life, from Hollywood to Berlin, from the black-and-white, silent dream factory to the garish and glaring German reality of the early 20th century. A chapter for every appointment on the couch. A life like a novel.