The weiss family are an archetypical hollywood dynasty - dr stafford weiss (john cusack) is a psychotherapist whose self-help books have made him a fortune.
his wife cristina (olivia williams) is the overbearing mom-ager of their thirteen-year old son, benjie, a prodigious child star fresh out of drug rehab, and their estranged daughter agatha (mia wasikowska) has recently been released from a psychiatric hospital.
agatha is now back in hollywood making friends with a wannabe actor named jerome (robert pattinson), and has landed a new job as pa to one of stafford’s clients - the neurotic and tempestuous actress havana segrand (julianne moore), whose dream of reprising her dead mother’s starring role from the 1960s is beginning to haunt her.