Set in the shadow of Hollywood opulence – the gaudy wastes of Los Angeles – West of Sunset is a sharp and potent satire of movie-making America. However, the excessive glitter is embedded in a deeper plot about a successful man's fall from grace. Hugo Arlington, a celebrated young writer, had the power to destroy people. His widow, Alice, is not the only person to be haunted by his death and life, and gradually the truth about the dangerous games Hugo played comes to light, and the past comes crashing into the present.

West of Sunset is an amusing and rich depiction of a world that Bogarde himself came to know and loathe.