1909 is a year of fierce competition in the infant silent movie industry, where Thomas Edison's Motion Picture Patents Company harasses independent moviemakers with lawsuits and sabotage. Nevertheless, Adam Weiss sells all his possessions and invests in a gamble that he and his wife, Emily, can make four pictures in three weeks.
They hire a colorful cast and crew--including a broken-down Broadway matinee idol, a passionate Stanislavsky-trained Russian beauty, seven labor goons, and two young Mohawk Indians on holiday from high steel work--and set up to make movies on the side of a cliff in Fort Lee, New Jersey.
When the dead body of Edison's detective turns up during the filming of a chaotic scene, Adam is arrested for the murder and Emily is on her own. She must solve the murder, elude the murderer, and produce the movies before the deadline falls.