Jean Bruce is a young actress who wants to be a serious actress, but has ended up in Hollywood making grindhouse films in which she appears nude. She has slept with 40 men in a year to get where she is, which seems to be nowhere. With money she has been saving for years, she moves to New York City to escape the sleaze of Hollywood and study under a famous method actor and coach named Sid Reinfheld.

Upon meeting Reinfheld, Jean finds herself very attracted to him, even though he is twice her age and twice her size. She sleeps with him, and later regrets betraying her ideals. She must decide between returning to grindhouse films in Hollywood or pursuing a destitute but artistic career in theater in New York.