Patrick “Mac” McFarland is a detective who was forced into early retirement from the Hollywood Police Department and finds himself in court-ordered therapy. There, he explains to his therapist that, to understand the people he deals with, she must understand the movie business and the people who populate it. And to do that, she must understand why they were drawn to it. Thus begins a lesson both in history and detective work as McFarland lays out his case – how and why man has always instinctively conveyed his most primal feelings through images, how those images have developed over time, and how the effect of those images drive some people to create unbelievable beauty, while it drives others to murder.
