The film opens with Judah at a charity benefit dinner thrown in his honor for his philanthropy to the hospital. The film cuts back in time to see Judah opening a letter addressed to his wife from his mistress, Dolores. Judah burns the letter. He gives his speech and next we see him and Dolores fight about her letter and he asks her not to do anything rash until they figure everything out. She wants more and he can’t leave his wife.
We then see Cliff with his niece at the movies. He takes care of her after her father passed away. Later Cliff and his wife Wendy go to meet her brother, Lester at his party. He’s a successful television producer and Cliff can’t stand him. Lester offers Cliff a job that he doesn’t want to take because it is a documentary following Lester around. Lester doesn’t want to give the job to him, he’s only doing it as a favor to Wendy and he tells Cliff this.
Judah is then driving, with flashbacks to his meeting Dolores. He gets into work and Dolores has called him in a panic. Judah then confesses his affair, another one, to Sam his Rabbi. Judah then goes to see Dolores who wants to go away with him and he refuses. In the midst of an argument we learn that Judah has been embezzling money and Dolores knows it and she threatens to tell the truth if he doesn’t stay with her.
Elsewhere, Cliff is filming Lester talking about comedy and Cliff can’t stand it but everyone is telling Lester he’s great. Lester tries to hit on Halley Reed the associate producer for the show doing the piece on him, and she denies him hard. Cliff speaks to her in order to pitch her one of his documentary pieces and she’s interested enough to tell him they could get some financing for him. Cliff heads to his sister’s house who cries to him about a guy she’s been dating. That he tied her to the bed and went to the bathroom on her and left. She’s struggling in her relationships because she’s lonely. Cliff goes home to his wife and tells her, but she doesn’t care and only wants to go to bed.
Judah goes to his friend Jack in order to get help fixing his problem with Dolores. Jack believes Judah wants her dead, but he’s appalled at the thought...until he seriously considers it. Cliff goes to the movies with Halley and we find out they’ve been going to the movies together the last couple of days. And at Judah’s house it’s his birthday and his family is there when Dolores calls threatening to come over if he doesn’t come to the gas station down the road to meet her. He speaks to her and then again is seriously considering killing Dolores, but this time with his Rabbi friend, Ben. He calls his brother Jack to see how to move forward and how much money he needs.
Cliff continues to shoot Lester’s biography, and we see Cliff cannot stand him. But Cliff and Halley continue to spend time together. This time watching his documentary footage and drinking champagne when Lester calls her to his hotel at 9pm which upsets Cliff.
We later find Judah at home when Jack calls to say that Dolores has been taken care of. It upsets Judah so much that he has to go to her apartment to see if it’s true. He arrives to find her lifeless on the floor. He collects all of his belongings from her apartment before leaving.
We then see Halley on a date with Lester sitting with Cliff and Wendy having drinks, and it’s driving Cliff crazy. Wendy and Cliff go home and Cliff calls Halley to find that Lester is there with her. Then the story moves back to Judah who is weighed down with guilt and goes to Jack to talk, but finds no relief. He then drives to his childhood home where he sees his family from his childhood talking about murder and it disturbs him. Judah arrives at work to find that a detective has called looking for him.
Cliff finds out that Professor Levy, who he is doing his documentary on has committed suicide. He then kisses Halley who doesn’t reciprocate. Judah is visited by the detective and he lies to him. The detective buys it. Cliff then shows his version of the documentary to Lester who hates it because he’s comparing him to a militant fascist and a horse while also showing him hitting on a woman offering her parts if she goes out with him. Lester fires Cliff and then Halley tells Cliff that she is leaving in 10 days for London to produce a show.
A time later we find Cliff, Judah, Lester and Halley all at a wedding for Ben’s daughter. Lester and Halley are engaged and Cliff is crushed. Judah and Cliff meet each other at the wedding and both have been drinking. Judah begins to tell his story of murder to Cliff as if it is a plot for a movie as Judah was told by Ben that he is a filmmaker. In the other room Wendy tells Lester that she’s met someone and Lester is ecstatic for her. The film ends with Professor Levy narrating about happiness as Judah leaves with his wife, Cliff carries on at the movie theatre with his niece and Ben finishes dancing with his daughter at her wedding.
