The year is 1942 and Archie Glass is a young black actor just come to Hollywood. He soon finds himself blacklisted and kicked off the lot, in an attempt to get back into showbiz he is hired to go looking for a missing white starlet.

A young writer, nearing a mental breakdown caused by his family and boss, moves into an apartment occupied by a walking, talking, foul-mouthed ape in a Hawaiian shirt and Converse High Tops.