The writer can do anything he wants, right? Or maybe not...as Steven, a handsome young theater history professor discovers when he sets out to write a stage thriller - a plain, old generic thriller - only to discover that his characters prefer a character study - and want it to be a movie, not a play. At least Steven can create the man of his dreams, right? But that character - Vertigo - named after Steven's sixth grade teacher Mr. Vertigo (Steven always dates men named Vertigo) - isn't really cooperating. Will Steven ever finish his play? Will Vertigo behave (or rather, misbehave) as Steven wishes? And what about the friends on whom Steven is basing his other characters - will they still be his friends when it's all over?
