Al Pacino plays a movie producer whose lead actress (Winona Ryder) suddenly drops out of his latest film. Without letting the public know, he use a revolutionary program from a scientist to replace the actress with a fully computer-generated starlet, named Simone. As audiences worlwide are swept up by her instant success, he cannot bear to admit his fraud to the world or to himself, hiding her "true identity" from the prying press and studio brass, until his invention threatens to ruin his life.