Hollywood, 1947. Jack Shannon, a former actor whose promising career was interrupted by the war and ended by a facial scar sustained in combat, is now a studio publicist. He jokes that the only thing he knows about publicity is how to suppress it, but that, in fact, is his real job. He’s a fixer who babysits the studio’s stars and covers up their bad behavior.Everything changes for Jack when Savannah Stevens enters his life. A sexpot star in the mold of Jean Harlow and the studio’s...

Hollywood, 1951. Jack Shannon—hobo, rising star, wounded vet, studio publicist—is in exile. Blackballed by the majors for his unauthorized effort to solve the mystery of a sexpot actress’ disappearance, he’s now a stuntman—a drug-store cowboy working from Tinseltown’s Poverty Row, where the budgets are tight and the jobs scarce.As the work dries up, Jack is in danger of losing his home, but salvation arrives in the figure of Karen Scott, a star who needs help as much as Jack needs ...