During the colorful 1980s, a 12-year-old child actor, Joey Rogers, reveals his chaotic life while working on a film about 1920s silent film star, Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle's childhood. During the height of the AIDS epidemic, homophobic fillmaker, George Rogers micro-manages the boy's future and also micro-manages everybody involved in Joey's surroundings. When along comes the "possibility of romance" cast and crew, family and friends begin to reflect on their own unhappy lives--all wishing for something else.