In modern day Los Angeles, writer Paul Verlaine invites young provocating poet Arthur Rimbaud into the home of his step-family, losing interest in his wife as he becomes infatuated with the boy.

Shakespearian actress Cordelia Coventry is about to give up on her career when she is chosen by director Bruce Rapport to become the star of a national ad campaign for Sudzall washing powder.

In 1963, living a routine life on Norma Place in Los Angeles, recluse writer Dorothy Parker and bisexual husband Alan Campbell recall their often-rocky relationship, started thirty years earlier.

« When I returned to Los Angeles after my Christmas break, I found a rather belated Christmas present in my letterbox; it was John Dorr’s new film. John Dorr’s Seasons Greetings, the latest in a series of video letters that John sent to his friends each year. (…) Although I’ve never seen John’s other Christmas cards, his latest delivery is clearly different from those that preceded it, in that he knew he was ill when he made it. It begins with a short statement to the camera about living with AIDS, which serves as a prologue to a series of vignettes recorded during trips he made last year with companion George La Fleur. » Bill Krohn, « John Dorr’s New Year’s Greetings », Cahiers du cinéma, n°470, Nov. 1993

Serving as a guinea pig in Dr. Wyoming's REM sleep research at the Second Sight institute, private detective Nick Malace is secretly implanted with a brain monitor by rival researcher Dr. Keiger.