Mickey King is a hack author of trashy crime novels living in Rome. He uses various pseudonyms to churn out lurid paperbacks and has little regard for authenticity. One day, he is approached by mysterious agents representing a reclusive figure offering him a lucrative ghostwriting job. Mickey meets with the client, Preston Gilbert, a former Hollywood actor known for his gangster roles, who insists that King write his autobiography. The arrangement seems straightforward, but Mickey soon realizes that Gilbert’s life is filled with real-life criminal entanglements. He reluctantly agrees to the job, traveling to a secluded Mediterranean island where Gilbert resides.

As Mickey delves into Gilbert's chaotic and dangerous past, he finds himself increasingly tangled in a web of intrigue. People connected to Gilbert start turning up dead under suspicious circumstances. The situation becomes perilous as Mickey tries to solve the puzzle of who is targeting Gilbert and why. Alongside dodging henchmen and hitmen, Mickey must navigate a labyrinthine plot that blurs the lines between fiction and reality. His journey into the underbelly of crime and deception reveals unsettling truths, compelling him to reconsider what he once perceived as merely pulp material for his books.